In October, a French judge handed down a ruling that anyone with access to Instagram could have seen coming: a guilty verdict in his corruption case. The social media playboy is famous for posts of luxury cars, champagne-fuelled trips to beaches in Cuba, and the purchase of Michael Jackson’s crystal-studded glove. #Luxuryliving.

Judge Benedicte de Perthuis called for the assets — including over $45 million in fines and the $160-million Paris mansion — to be returned to the people of Equatorial Guinea, ideally in the form of aid, as opposed to the French treasury.

It was only a recommendation, lacking the legal framework to compel the assets be returned. To ensure they are, Transparency International, an NGO working in more than 100 countries to combat global corruption, is lobbying for a legislative amendment for cases like Obiang’s.

The case raises an interesting question: How do you return money to a country whose government stole it? And how do we turn it into development funding?

This solution is no doubt complex, but it’s also a moral imperative.

In 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents inspect a Ferrari at the Malibu, Calif., mansion of the son of Equitorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, [The Associated Press]

“It was an open secret,” says Lucas Olo Fernandes, program co-ordinator at Transparency International, about the flow of corrupt money into France. “This is obviously money from a country that needs it.”

Equatorial Guinea has the highest per capita income in Africa — yet half the population don’t have access to clean drinking water and 40 per cent of children aren’t in school.

An estimated US$2 trillion is lost to corruption globally every year. Even a tiny portion of this treasure chest would represent a new — and massive — funding stream to help implement development initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This is bold thinking — and it should be the new benchmark.

Fernandes says the first step is supporting democratic reform and finding legitimate civil society actors — of which there are many in Equatorial Guinea — on the ground. This would involve an inclusive consultation process and a transparent management system working with recognized NGOs.

This is not just an academic pursuit; corrupt money is a real problem that affects many nations, including Canada. Recent reports revealed that kleptocrats are exploiting Canada’s tax system to “snow wash” their money.

“This is not something that happens (just) overseas … (Canada) is part of the problem and must be part of the solution.”

“This is not something that happens (just) overseas,” explains Alesia Nahirny, executive director of Transparency International Canada. “(Canada) is part of the problem and must be part of the solution.”

With rumblings of two impending cases against leaders from Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville, France is getting serious about the vast sums of corrupt money flowing through its borders. Britain, too, has recently passed new legislation compelling those suspected of profiting from corruption explain their wealth.

Canada must follow suit.

Our country’s laws and institutions should not offer safe haven for leaders who steal from their own people. Canada’s recently passed version of the U.S. Magnitsky law (formally known as the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act) is a good start, empowering legislators to go after offenders.

But simply seizing their assets is not enough. That money belongs where it will do the most good: helping lift the world’s poor out of poverty.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-instagram-playboys-court-case-may-hasten-development-funding/feed0Teodoro Nguema ObiangcraigkielburgerTeodoro Nguema ObiangNiksen is the new hyggehttp://o.canada.com/life/niksen-is-the-new-hygge
http://o.canada.com/life/niksen-is-the-new-hygge#respondMon, 12 Feb 2018 22:10:06 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766763Another day, another globally inspired lifestyle philosophy. In the last few years, we’ve embraced hygge, the Danish idea of cosy simplicity; còsagach, the Scottish concept of staying snug and sheltered; and lagom, the Swedish principle of enjoying balance in life.

Now, there’s niksen, what the Dutch call doing absolutely nothing — and not feeling an ounce of guilt about it. Quite different from sloth and its Jabba the Hutt connotations, the goal of niksen is to relieve stress, recharge and prevent burnout. It’s about slowing down, letting your mind wander and challenging the cult of busyness.

Another benefit: The Atlantic reports that contemplation and daydreaming can spark creativity.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/niksen-is-the-new-hygge/feed0sad girl looking out the windowmhank201224 Hour Challenge wants teens to sneak into Ikeahttp://o.canada.com/life/homes/24-hour-challenge-wants-teens-to-sneak-into-ikea
http://o.canada.com/life/homes/24-hour-challenge-wants-teens-to-sneak-into-ikea#respondMon, 12 Feb 2018 22:04:35 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766758What’s a teen to do when the Tide Pod Challenge is no more — or it becomes undeniably lame? Why, sleep in Ikea furniture, of course.

Last week, police in the U.K. issued a warning about a fad called the 24 Hour Challenge after an 11-year-old boy didn’t return home from school and was considered missing, until it was revealed that he had been sleeping overnight in a Malm dresser at Ikea.

The challenge demands that young people sneak into businesses, spend the night there and upload videos to YouTube as proof of their shenanigans. The trend began in 2016 when two Belgian teens spent the night in a closet at Ikea.

Since then, reports Vice, teens worldwide have been building overnight forts in places like trampoline parks, Walmart, Chuck E. Cheese and McDonald’s. A quick YouTube search for “24 Hour Overnight Challenge” currently yields more than 1.5 million results.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/homes/24-hour-challenge-wants-teens-to-sneak-into-ikea/feed0Europe Ikea Selling Onlinemhank2012Why couch potatoes are good for the Earthhttp://o.canada.com/life/homes/why-couch-potatoes-are-good-for-the-earth
http://o.canada.com/life/homes/why-couch-potatoes-are-good-for-the-earth#respondMon, 12 Feb 2018 21:49:28 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766752As if we needed another reason to be couch potatoes. According to a report in the journal Joule, Americans spent the equivalent of eight days more at home in 2012 than they spent in 2003 — and that led to 1.8 per cent drop in energy consumption in the country.

That’s right: it’s greener to be a homebody, even though Americans are spending the equivalent of eight more days with the TV turned on than they did in 2003.

The article, titled Changes in Time Use and Their Effect on Energy Consumption in the United States, explains that technology and socio-economic trends — such as online shopping and Netflix — are the main forces behind the lifestyle change.

“We find that Americans are spending more time at home and correspondingly less time travelling and in offices and stores,” it reads, according to treehugger.com. “We find that more time at home implies lower energy consumption due to reduced automobile travel and energy use in non-residential buildings.”

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/homes/why-couch-potatoes-are-good-for-the-earth/feed0Happy young couple relaxing on the couchmhank2012This robot sorts, folds laundry for youhttp://o.canada.com/life/homes/this-robot-sorts-folds-laundry-for-you
http://o.canada.com/life/homes/this-robot-sorts-folds-laundry-for-you#respondMon, 12 Feb 2018 21:26:35 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766738We can’t all have our own personal Rosie the Robot — like George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, and Jane, his wife — but the Laundroid will have you feeling positively Jetson-esque.

Unveiled at the most recent Consumer Electronics Show, the Laundroid is a laundry-folding robot that looks less like dear Rosie and more like a standing mirrored wardrobe with a deep bottom drawer.

Just toss your clean clothes into that drawer, and the Laundroid will use image analysis to figure out what’s in there and then sort, fold and stack your clothing on the appropriate shelf.

You get to choose how the Laundroid organizes your clothes via the companion app. The machine will need to run overnight to be of use to the average family.

As the makers of the Laundroid point out, we spend an average of 18,000 hours of our lives on laundry, and 375 days just folding clothes. But, it’ll cost you to get that precious time back: For the convenience of a Laundroid, you’ll pay a very likely inconvenient US$17,000.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/homes/this-robot-sorts-folds-laundry-for-you/feed0LIFE Laundroid.JPGmhank2012Global Voices: Why you can do about the nuclear threathttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-why-you-can-do-about-the-nuclear-threat
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-why-you-can-do-about-the-nuclear-threat#respondTue, 06 Feb 2018 07:00:38 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766624Marzhan Nurzhan has a mission. The 25-year-old from Kazakhstan is rallying global youth to tackle one of the biggest threats to her generation. But time may be running out.

Nurzhan has been an international advocate for nuclear disarmament ever since she learned of the impact nuclear weapons had on her country. Two million Kazakhstanis still suffer cancer and birth defects, the fallout from decades of Soviet weapons tests.

While many international organizations are active on nuclear disarmament, advocates like Nurzhan face a major challenge getting ordinary people engaged, especially youth. During the Cold War, public demonstrations against nuclear arms were common. Today, not so much. Increased threats haven’t increased public interest, says Nurzhan.

“(Nuclear disarmament), feels too large for a lot of people and they feel powerless,” says Rob van Riet, peace and disarmament co-ordinator for the World Future Council.

Issues like climate change are daunting, but tangible. Ordinary citizens can contact politicians, demanding policies that reduce emissions. More importantly, people have at least some control over their household energy use. But making superpowers give up their huge arsenals, let alone influencing a rogue state like North Korea, seems unattainable.

Robert Rosner, chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, right, moves the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight during a news conference [The Associated Press]

Still, Nurzhan and Van Riet insist ordinary people can help reduce the global risk of nuclear conflict.

A powerful tool is divestment. The U.S., Russia and China want to upgrade their aging nuclear arsenals, and develop new types of smaller weapons that could be used on the battlefield. The companies that build parts for those bombs are supported by investors like pension funds — and even our personal RRSP funds. We can pressure investors to drop these companies from their portfolios, pushing them to get out of the bomb business.

Canada is uniquely positioned to be a leader in nuclear disarmament. As climate change makes Arctic waters more accessible to submarines, Russia and the U.S. increasingly see the North as a key part of their nuclear strategy, according to van Riet. As a respected Arctic nation, Canada could lead the campaign to make the region a nuclear-free zone.

Likewise, with public pressure, Canada could play a diplomatic leadership role and insist that all nuclear states follow the example of China and India and declare a ‘no first use’ policy. This would reduce the risk of conventional conflicts escalating into nuclear war.

But if Canada is to be that leader, we have to make it a priority for our government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been conducting town halls across the country — a great opportunity to raise the issue, notes Douglas Roach, a former Canadian senator and Ambassador for Nuclear Disarmament. “If he’s is not hearing from people, he’s going to think people don’t care.”

The Cold War may be a distant memory, but its terrifying ghost still haunts us. It’s time for us to engage again on nuclear disarmament.

The clock is ticking.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-why-you-can-do-about-the-nuclear-threat/feed0Hwasong-12craigkielburgerLawrence Krauss, Robert RosnerGlobal Voices: Bridging the gap between immigration and employmenthttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-bridging-the-gap-between-immigration-and-employment
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-bridging-the-gap-between-immigration-and-employment#respondTue, 30 Jan 2018 07:39:21 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766579Talha Mohammad Malik is one of the lucky ones.

He came to Canada seeking a better future for his daughter. He brought with him a strong education and promising job experience, one of the more than 170,000 skilled immigrants Canada welcomed in 2016. But unlike the vast majority of them, he’s managed to find fulfilling work in his field.

Originally from Pakistan, Malik is exactly the kind of immigrant Canada should attract: Fluent in English, he has a degree in computer science and a background in IT in the financial sector.

With Toronto sitting on Amazon’s shortlist for its new headquarters, Canada must focus on maximizing our talent pool — especially among our newest citizens.

There’s a long-running Toronto joke that the best place to have a heart attack is in the back of a taxi because chances are the driver is a doctor. In reality, there aren’t many doctors driving cabs — but one fifth of newcomers who end up behind the wheel have bachelor’s or master’s degrees. This illustrates the wider problem: 24 per cent of skilled immigrants who come here can’t work in their field or are underemployed.

“We have these people coming to Canada because they are doctors and lawyers,” says Shabnum Budhwani, senior manager with the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council of Canada. “But there are major barriers once they’re here.”

The waste of potential costs our economy as much as $17 billion a year and causes stress and depression for immigrants. “On one side of the border, you’re a doctor. And on the other, you’re nothing,” Budhwani says.

The waste of potential costs our economy as much as $17 billion a year and causes stress and depression for immigrants.

The problem of aligning certifications for regulated professions, like doctors and lawyers, has been widely discussed and debated. But it’s not the only challenge that keeps so many highly trained professionals like Malik from having relevant and meaningful careers.

The challenges for new Canadians that so often get overlooked are the soft skills, like networking and job hunting know-how. As the old saying goes: It’s not what you know, but who you know. And the formula for a job-winning resumé in Pakistan won’t necessarily work in Canada.

After leaving one of the largest banks in Pakistan, Malik assumed he’d find similar work here. But he didn’t have a network to rely on. More than 80 per cent of jobs are filled with informal connections, so Malik turned to ACCES Employment, an organization that helps internationally trained newcomers find work.

He learned to tailor his resumé for Canadian employers. And he received tips on which areas in the Canadian financial services market are growing. Most importantly, he plugged into a promising network of job contacts.

Within months, Malik landed a job with RBC. Back in Pakistan he was a business analyst; now, he works with retail and small business clients. He’s making use of his skills, and learning new ones. “It’s a completely different role,” he says, “still, it’s within the financial sector and it’s a platform to reposition myself.”

Thanks to a program that bridged the gap between immigration and employment, Malik has meaningful employment, contributing much more to our country than he would behind the wheel of a cab. And he is able to support his daughter in achieving the better life he envisioned for her in Canada.

Every skilled new Canadian deserves the same opportunity.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-bridging-the-gap-between-immigration-and-employment/feed0Global VoicescraigkielburgerNancy Rosen’s paintings bring artistic edge to Grace and Frankiehttp://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/nancy-rosens-paintings-bring-artistic-edge-to-grace-and-frankie
http://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/nancy-rosens-paintings-bring-artistic-edge-to-grace-and-frankie#respondFri, 26 Jan 2018 22:24:49 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766546Virginia Woolf isn’t the only one who knows the value of having a room of one’s own. On Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, free-spirited Frankie (Lily Tomlin) carves out creative solace in the living Pottery Barn ad that is her pal Grace’s (Jane Fonda) beach house.

While she has a meditation room outfitted with Indonesian art, floor pillows and incense, Frankie’s art studio is where her paintings become pure expressions of herself. Production designer Devorah Herbert tells Architectural Digest that the art featured on the show is the handiwork of Chicago-based artist Nancy Rosen.

“It’s one of the most personal elements on the show,” she says. “We didn’t go to a prop house — we had it all commissioned. It’s all so specific, and being able to handicraft each item every time Frankie has a new piece of artwork or an art show, that is really fun.”

Tomlin reveals that Rosen’s paintings — full of sharp angles, vibrant colours and expressive faces — help her dive into her character. One notable era in Frankie’s artistic career saw her focused on solely painting representations of vaginas.

“Nancy is who Frankie is in terms of her maternal instinct (and) her passion for her work, her family,” Tomlin says. “When I sit in a scene studying a painting, I think, When did I paint this? It’s a memory I’ve forgotten, but it’s just as it should be. It’s just what I intended.”

]]>http://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/nancy-rosens-paintings-bring-artistic-edge-to-grace-and-frankie/feed0Lily Tomlin in Grace and Frankiemhank2012How to be a better listener and have meaningful conversationshttp://o.canada.com/life/how-to-be-a-better-listener-and-have-meaningful-conversations
http://o.canada.com/life/how-to-be-a-better-listener-and-have-meaningful-conversations#respondWed, 24 Jan 2018 19:18:29 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766512“Oh, hey! Long time no see! How’s everything going? Good! We should really go for coffee sometime and catch up … All right, byyyeee!”

So goes many a casual encounter, perhaps punctuated with a followup Facebook friend request or half-hearted text exchange that goes nowhere.

In each episode of Hello Goodbye Canada, Curd engages random strangers who are waiting for loved ones or seeing them off in airports. It’s an emotionally charged endeavour: As of this season, the show’s third, he’s spoken with about 1,000 people who’ve shared stories of love, loss, family, friendships and grief.

“I think we undervalue the benefit of connecting with other people,” says Curd, who also teaches a course about his style of empathetic listening to nurses in Houston.

“We’ve traded quality connection for immediate gratification. I hear it from people on the show and here in Houston when I’m talking to nurses. They’re constantly bombarded with texts and emails, but what they crave more than anything else is the opportunity to sit down and have a meaningful conversation with someone.”

Hello Goodbye Canada [CBC]

The key is to relate to the person you’re talking to, and to hold emotional space for them to express themselves.

“You’re looking for opportunities — in listening to what they share and how they share it — to form bridges with them. It’s a real dialogue of respect back and forth, so nobody tries to steal the space or talk over or talk at someone,” says Curd, noting that a typical conversation in filming for Hello Goodbye Canada can last 45 to 90 minutes and yield up to four potential stories.

“I find that people are willing to have a conversation with me where they open up and I treat them with respect and ask questions that are meaningful and that make them think. I’m not prying or trying to be exploitative. I come at it from a real place of curiosity.”

For this season — which airs new episodes until Feb. 2 and, once the Winter Olympics are over, returns on March 2 — Curd and his camera crew taped more than 300 stories. Thirty-six of them will make it to air.

I’m not prying or trying to be exploitative. I come at it from a real place of curiosity.

“I spoke with a young woman waiting for a boyfriend who’s arriving from overseas. In a lot of respects she’s a lot like a normal teenager, but she has been dealing with cancer for most of her teenage life,” says Curd.

“We just had this beautiful conversation about what it was like to be a teenager, to have cancer, to go through all the experiences she’s had and still think about falling in love and being in love and the future. It was a beautiful and frank and mature conversation with somebody who was wise beyond her years.”

He recalls another woman, one from the former Yugoslavia, whose husband was taken away from their home in front of her and her children — a story he calls “haunting.”

“What I know about who I am is so limited if I keep to myself,” Curd says. “It’s only when I take the time to actually connect with other people and hear about their lives that I learn so much about my own life — in terms of putting things into perspective but also trying to figure out who I am as a person.”

3 STEPS TO BEING A BETTER LISTENER

1. Intend to listen. “If you’re going to listen to someone, really intend to listen — which is very different from hearing somebody. To listen to someone is to give them your full undivided attention, to be active in your listening.”

2. Listen with your eyes. “Our eyes are far better at picking up all the subtle non-verbal body language cues that a person gives. A person’s body language tells you much more about how they feel and whether they feel comfortable or uncomfortable about what they’re sharing, certainly more than their words will.”

3. Ask good questions. “A good question is one that’s intended for the other person, not for me to receive information. A really good question is a question that keeps the conversation going. It deepens the sharing that person is doing, it opens up a way of thinking about what they’re sharing that they haven’t thought of before.”

Hello Goodbye Canada airs Fridays on CBC

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/how-to-be-a-better-listener-and-have-meaningful-conversations/feed0Hello Goodbye Canadamhank2012Hello Goodbye CanadaGlobal Voices: Just call it CSI: Congohttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-just-call-it-csi-congo
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-just-call-it-csi-congo#respondTue, 23 Jan 2018 07:14:59 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766482Abducted from their homes one by one in the dead of night, more than 40 girls from the village of Kavumu in eastern Congo were raped, mutilated, and dumped the next morning, barely alive, in nearby fields between 2013 and 2016. The youngest victim was just eight months old.

This past December, 11 militiamen and a high-ranking politician were sentenced to life in prison after an unprecedented trial and landmark verdict. It was the country’s largest successful mass prosecution for sex crimes in history. The case brought hope to a nascent democracy with a weak justice system, aided not by international authorities, but by a non-profit group.

Launched in 2012, the Forensics Training Institute program from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) trains Congolese doctors, police and court officials in forensic investigation—techniques that cracked the Kavumu case.

Though the International Criminal Court is often seen as the venue to deal with crimes against humanity, it should be a measure of last resort and not a default solution. Ideally, every country should be able to handle such cases in its own courts. For nations like DRC — ravaged by civil war and afflicted by poverty — police and justice officials lack the training and resources to effectively investigate and prosecute major crimes.

Rather than outsource to an international body that brings politics with questionable effectiveness, these nations need capacity-building for local authorities.

When girls from Kavumu began arriving at nearby Panzi Hospital in 2013, doctors there knew what to do.

When a sexual assault occurs in Canada, doctors treating survivors rely on a “rape kit” to gather critical evidence. In the Congo, there was no equivalent until PHR introduced tools and training for emergency room doctors. They learned to preserve DNA evidence, and sensitively interview patients. When girls from Kavumu began arriving at nearby Panzi Hospital in 2013, doctors there knew what to do.

In 2015, officers from a newly formed sexual violence unit of the Congolese police launched an investigation into the Kavumu assaults. After training in forensic crime-scene examination, they gathered crucial evidence and identified suspects — the militia led by Frederic Batumike, a local politician. Because a militia was involved, the Congolese military joined the investigation.

Military investigators also received training and equipment to analyze cellphone data and track the suspects’ communications. With support from TRIAL International, a legal NGO, military prosecutors received legal training to present forensic evidence in court, and to outline the data that doctors and police had carefully gathered.

Ripples from the verdict are spreading. Already, observers in neighbouring countries that have experienced mass crimes, like the Central African Republic, are talking about how they can learn from the DRC case, according to Susannah Sirkin, PHR’s Director of International Policy.

Sirkin says the case needs to set a precedent, even outside the country: “One victory is not enough.”

To ensure more such victories, international donors must invest in growing programs, like PHR’s forensic training, that support countries in building their own robust justice systems. Because access to justice is a basic human right.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-just-call-it-csi-congo/feed0A woman covers her face as she describes her rape to a health worker in D.R. Congo.craigkielburgerGlobal Voices: Empathy in the face of addictionhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-empathy-in-the-face-of-addiction
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-empathy-in-the-face-of-addiction#respondTue, 16 Jan 2018 22:29:15 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766449Ruston Baldwin took his first drink when he was two years old. His father was an angry man and a drinker himself. He raised Baldwin on beer.

When Baldwin was seven, his mother was diagnosed with a severe case of scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder. Every year, doctors would amputate parts of her hands and feet as her blood stopped circulating. While his mother wasted away and his father drank, Baldwin found comfort in one substance after another, eventually turning to cocaine and heroin.

As fentanyl claims lives on city streets and in suburbs alike, and as governments turn to safe injections sites to protect their citizens, Baldwin’s experiences speak to the conversation Canada needs to have — one that substitutes compassion and care for derision and detention.

“I did it all,” the sober 50-year-old Baldwin says unflinchingly of a lifetime of addiction stemming from early experiences of abuse and neglect.

Now a peer support worker for others struggling with mental health and addiction, his story illustrates the undeniable connection between trauma, mental health and dependence that is too often ignored in favour of judgment or contempt.

In 2016, nearly 3,000 Canadians died from opioid-related overdoses. Final numbers from 2017 aren’t in yet, but experts suggest the total will surpass 4,000. For all the recent media attention on fentanyl, public perception is still skewed. Instead of relying on stigma and stereotypes of addicts as immoral and depraved, we should see them like Baldwin — as people in pain, in need of help, and capable of so much more.

Despite more empathetic talk from policy-makers, harm-reduction sites that can save lives are still scarce. In a mental holdover from the 1980s War on Drugs that left prisons full and lives ruined, addicts are still judged for their circumstances, expected to “just say no” and exert more willpower.

Baldwin wasn’t able to say no. His willpower didn’t stand a chance against his circumstance.

He was fired from every job he ever had and kicked out of every apartment. He spent time living on the streets, passing fake cheques for money to eat or to get high.

Faced with prison time for forgery, Baldwin got the right kind of rehab instead of punishment. He confronted a history of emotional abuse from his father and the pain of watching his mother die. He learned to face his trauma, identify his triggers, have empathy for those who caused him pain and to forgive himself.

“It was meant to be. Every sip, every drug, every experience was preparing me for this,” Baldwin explains of his current role with the Mood Disorder Association of Ontario in Toronto. His journey gives others hope that they too can come out on the other side.

On his daily rounds visiting clients, he travels past a safe injection site in downtown Toronto. From the window of the streetcar, he spies temporary shelters and harm reduction workers armed with naloxone kits. At the telltale signs of addiction, Baldwin reserves judgment. He knows that trauma can be healed.

“I feel there’s hope,” he tells us, giving us hope in turn.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

One-third of charitable donations in Canada are made in December. But the needs of others don’t cease when we put away the ornaments. Did you know, come January, millions of Canadians and Americans lose their jobs, putting pressure on shelters? Did you know there are more orphaned kittens in the spring and more hungry schoolchildren in the summer? As you make New Year’s resolutions, consider how the needs in your community peak throughout the year.

There is more than one season of need. There should be multiple seasons of giving.

January is National Mentoring Month. Why not kick off the year by becoming a role model? In addition to its one-on-one mentoring, Big Brothers and Sisters also runs group programs. With Go Girls! and Game On!, volunteers lead groups of 12- to 14-year-olds in fitness activities, and teach healthy eating habits and communication skills. The eight- to 10-week program is tied to the school year, so every January (and again in September), Big Brothers and Sisters is on the hunt for volunteers for just two hours per week.

January is also the month of buyer’s remorse — even for furry friends given as presents but returned to animal shelters. Humane Societies and other caregivers need funds, pet food and volunteers to walk dogs on cold winter days. Spring brings “kitten season.” Shelters are inundated with thousands of newborn felines needing food and veterinary care.

As spring warms to summer, some kids can’t wait to escape the classroom. For others, the end of the school year also means the end of school breakfast and lunch programs. Families who rely on the programs turn to food banks to ensure their children have enough to eat. Consider supporting your local food bank after the frost, with food items and funds, and even a few volunteer hours to help sort and deliver donations.

Survivors of domestic abuse will often wait until school’s out to leave their partners, to give their children some stability before their lives are turned upside down, according to Women’s Shelters Canada. Come June, short-term women’s shelters especially need financial support and donated items like diapers and women’s sanitary products. You can find and support local shelters through Sheltersafe.ca.

If you want to help vulnerable young people have a better summer, YMCA is always on the hunt for counsellors and support staff to help run its camps for low-income children and youth. Coach a YMCA children’s basketball or soccer class, or teach swimming if you have your certification. Basically, you can relive the summer camps of your own youth.

These are broad national trends. Every community, and every community organization, will have its own unique needs and timetables. Resources like your local United Way and community centres can help connect you with the causes in your neighbourhood that need your support throughout the year.

‘Tis the season of giving — all year long.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-make-2018-count-for-more/feed0Shelters always need food and also volunteers to walk dogs on cold winter dayscraigkielburgerSpring brings “kitten season,” flooding shelters with little cats needing food and attention.25 ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve around the worldhttp://o.canada.com/life/25-ways-to-celebrate-new-years-eve-around-the-world
http://o.canada.com/life/25-ways-to-celebrate-new-years-eve-around-the-world#respondThu, 28 Dec 2017 20:21:19 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766283Toodle-oo, 2017! With high hopes for peace and prosperity, good luck and love, people around the world are getting ready to ring in the new year. This is how they’ll be celebrating in 24 countries (and one U.S. territory — here’s to a better year ahead, Puerto Rico)

Argentina: Pile your plate high with beans on New Year’s Eve, and you’ll have good luck. Some people also carry suitcases around their homes in the hopes of travelling more in the year ahead.

Austria: Whoever finds the charm hidden in a suckling pig will have good luck — though it’s too bad the luck for the pig itself seems to have run out. In the dessert course, peppermint ice cream will presumably stretch your wallet in the new year as much as your waistband.

Bahamas: Legend has it that the Junkanoo festival started in the late 18th century, when slaves were allowed to leave plantations to celebrate Christmas together. It happens on both Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, running from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. It’s a loud and lively affair, with dancers, elaborate costumes and musicians beating goatskin drums and blowing cow whistles.

Belgium: Children write letters to their parents on New Year’s Day, using paper decorated with cherubs, angels and coloured roses. And who says only humans celebrate the turn of the calendar? Farmers bid their livestock a Happy New Year to bring about good health and well-being.

Bolivia: Get your dental plan in order, because coins are baked into sweets in Bolivia — if you find one, you’ll be prosperous in the new year. Leaving three stones outside your door will bring health, prosperity and love. Or, you can be more discreet in your intentions: Wearing yellow undies will supposedly bring money, while red undies will bring love.

Brazil: You’ll be bidding 2017 goodbye come hell or high water. And when that high water comes, you can celebrate according to tradition on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach. Jumping through seven waves will bring good luck and if you’re wearing white while doing it, it’ll also bring peace. Get extra credit by throwing a bouquet into the ocean as an offering to the goddess of the seas.

China: Festivities honouring the Gregorian New Year happen in big cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai, but the Chinese Lunar New Year — or Spring Festival — happens in late January or early February. To set the stage, many people literally wash away bad luck with a cleaning spree. They also buy gifts for loved ones, give kids money in red paper envelopes and paint their front doors red to bring happiness and good luck.

Denmark: Friends don’t let friends keep chipped dishes. Instead, friends let friends throw them around willy nilly. People hang on to their chipped dishes and glasses all year just to smash them against their buddies’ front doors on New Year’s Eve. Those with the most shards come morning can brag about having the most friends.

Ecuador: Ecuadoreans are not messing around. Using newspaper and wood, they build life-size effigies of their enemies and burn them in the streets at midnight. To be fair, though, the dummies represent all the misfortunes of the past year — not just their nemeses’ rank vileness.

Germans celebrate the new year with pig-shaped marzipan treats. [Getty Images]

England: Luck may be a lady tonight but on New Year’s Day, it takes the form of a boy. Brits believe that the first guest to walk through your front door should be a lad who’s tall and dark-haired, and he should bring bread (to make sure you’re well fed), salt (to herald wealth) and coal (to keep you warm).

Estonia: Loosen your belt buckle, because things are about to get gluttonous. Traditionally, Estonians eat multiple meals on New Year’s Eve — seven, nine or 12 meals are believed to be the luckiest, and you’ll gain the strength of that many men in the coming year. Let not your gut be daunted, though. You can leave some food on the plate for ancestral spirits.

Finland: Your fortune for the next 365 days is told via molybdomancy — the act of melting tin and quickly throwing it into a bucket of cold water. An expert analyzes the resulting blob of metal.

France: A special nighttime feast called Le Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre is loaded with traditional dishes like pancakes, foie gras and Champagne. The meal is thought to bring prosperity and good luck.

Germany: Now here’s a tradition Homer Simpson would approve of. On New Year’s Eve, Germans kick back with jam-filled doughnuts and marzipan goodies shaped like pigs. They also flip on the TV to watch the British cabaret play Dinner for One, which is broadcast in black and white each year.

Greece: Hang an onion on your door on New Year’s Eve as a sign of rebirth. In the morning, parents tap their kids on the head with it to wake them up. Greeks also smash a pomegranate on their doorsteps before setting foot in their homes — the more seeds you see, the more luck and prosperity you’ll have.

Ireland: Are you a single lady? Would you like someone to put a ring on it? According to tradition, you’ll land a mate if you pop some mistletoe under your pillow the night of Dec. 31.

Japan: People literally ring in the new year, as the bells in Buddhist temples chime 108 times on New Year’s Eve (known as Omisoka). In Buddhism, there are 108 human desires that lead to suffering — the bells are believed to banish negative emotions and thoughts.

Peru: Which spud’s for you? On New Year’s Eve, three potatoes are stowed under a chair or couch — one unpeeled, one peeled and one half-peeled. Without looking, you pick a potato at midnight to tell your financial fortune: The peeled potato means money will be scarce, the half-peeled potato indicates a typical year, and the unpeeled potato means you’ll be able to afford much more than three potatoes next year.

Puerto Rico: People scrub down their homes, cars and streets in preparation for Jan. 1. Some also toss buckets of water from a window, which chases away evil spirits and demons (and, presumably, anyone who happens to be walking below).

Romania: Some people foretell the weather for the upcoming year by methodically peeling, salting and reading the skins of 12 onions — the liquid left by melted salt is the key determiner.

Men dressed as Vikings take part in the torchlight procession through Edinburgh for the start of the Hogmanay celebrations [Getty Images]

Russia: The fictional character Ded Moroz (translated as Grandfather Frost) brings presents to children on New Year’s Eve. He’s accompanied by Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), his granddaughter and helper.

Scotland: The three-day celebration Hogmanay starts on Dec. 30, and finds torch-wielding revellers, pipers and drummers marching through Edinburgh. The next two nights bring gatherings called cèilidhean, filled with singing, traditional dancing and storytelling.

Spain: Each time the clock strikes at midnight, people eat one grape — an exercise that’s thought to bring prosperity.

Switzerland: Unlike the Puerto Ricans and Chinese with their neatnik traditions, the Swiss take a more laissez-faire approach. They drop a dollop of whipped cream on the floor to bring abundance. The longer it lingers there, the better.

Vietnam: New year, new clothes. People don a traditional outfit called ao dai to to celebrate Tet, the Lunar New Year, in late January or early February, signifying a fresh start. Three days (or more) of festivities call for eating, drinking, socializing and paying respect to ancestors and elders.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/25-ways-to-celebrate-new-years-eve-around-the-world/feed0Copacabana beach, Brazilmhank2012Chinese folk artists perform during the Spring Festival Temple FairGermans celebrate the new year with pig-shaped marzipan treats. In Russia, Grandfather Frost and Snow Maiden bring presents on New Year’s Eve.Men dressed as Vikings take part in the torchlight procession through Edinburgh for the start of the Hogmanay celebrations7 tips for self-care during the holidayshttp://o.canada.com/life/7-tips-for-self-care-during-the-holidays
http://o.canada.com/life/7-tips-for-self-care-during-the-holidays#respondWed, 20 Dec 2017 18:26:34 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766245It might not officially be Treat Yo Self day — that Parks and Recreation-inspired celebration that demands you revel in massages, mimosas, fine leather goods and more — but the rigmarole of the holiday season practically demands it.

“We’re super-heightened at this time of year, so schedule some self-care time like an appointment,” says Hamilton-based naturopath Renata Taravski. “We don’t treat ourselves with the same value as say, a dentist appointment. But when you make a plan, it’s going to set you up for success.”

Taravski shared seven more tips for self-care during the holidays.

1. Know your limits

There’s only one way to avoid hosting a dinner, hunting down the perfect gift and manning the bake sale all in one day: Just say no. “It’s about setting boundaries,” says Taravski. “People tend to commit to things resentfully, thinking that they have to do them or else they feel guilty. But it’s really about knowing what your limit is and not feeling bad about it, and not trying to explain it.”

2. Plot your meal domination

Rather than being more restrictive than a pair of size-small Spanx, allow yourself some wiggle room for delicious treats. “Give yourself a couple of days where you’re like, ‘I’m going to indulge in what I want to indulge in, in moderation,” says Taravski, adding that one blissful meal won’t add 10 pounds overnight.

“It’s the accumulation of the whole month of throwing everything out the window that we worked so hard for during the year. So plan your cheat days, your fun days, your indulgent days. Then you know you’re saving yourself for that favourite meal and you’re not going to feel an ounce of guilt about it.”

3. A moving experience

Lolling around like Jabba the Hutt may seem like an ideal way to spend an afternoon, but then again, ol’ Jabba wasn’t exactly the paragon of health. Just incorporating a modicum of movement can offset food indulgences and keep you on track. “Even walking more or spending Christmas outside, or going bowling is exercise,” says Taravski. “Try to commit to meeting your friends or planning your holiday events around activities so you’re keeping active and you don’t feel like you’re working out. Make it fun. Go for a walk on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. Don’t sit there and stuff your face.”

[Getty Images/iStockphoto]

4. The big sleep

A well-rested guest is a guest who’s less likely to lash out with a shish kebab skewer. Fill your evening routine with good habits, like banishing your cellphone to a faraway corner. The scent of lavender also helps — try dabbing your pillow with it, or adding some to a diffuser — and give yourself a good hour to wind down.

“We’re going to be sitting with people or have conversations that might be dreadful for us, and we’re less patient and loving if we’re not getting enough sleep,” Taravski says. “You might stay out late for a couple of days, but commit to your sleep schedule. If you have an event, know that you don’t have to stay to the very end.”

5. To tech or not to tech?

It’s tempting to think that if something’s not documented on social media, it never really happened. But a respite from virtual reality might be just what you need to enjoy actual reality.

“When I’m at a family event, I’ll take out my phone and take my picture — but then I put my phone away. I don’t have to be texting people at the dinner table. It’s really cherishing being with the people you’re with and giving yourself that mental break,” says Taravski.

6. Meditate on this

You don’t have to be a master yogi to gain the benefits of meditation — even a few minutes can help when you feel like you’re burning the pumpkin spice-scented candle at both ends.

“Meditation calms our nervous system down and gets us more calm and clear. We’re less likely to explode or react a certain way or feel the effects of stress,” says Taravski.

She recommends the free app Insight Timer, which is available for Android and iPhones, and has ambient sounds, visualizations, lectures and guided imagery meditations in just about any length you need.

7. Curb your enthusiasm

With all due respect to Andy Williams, maybe this isn’t really the most wonderful time of the year. Maybe, for some, it’s the holiday equivalent of stepping barefooted on a piece of Lego. It might be the anniversary of the death of a loved one, your financial situation might be particularly dire, or the holidays might not have turned out the way you hoped.

“Just because it’s Christmas it doesn’t mean that it’s all bunnies and rainbows the whole month. Let go of your expectations and accept whatever shows up in the moment. That’s not just for people who experience depression — that’s for all of us,” says Taravski.

“Reach out to people around you and share your vulnerability. At the end of the day, as humans, we all want connection. And the holidays are the perfect time reignite it.”

For some Canadians, 2017 is the year that ended a three-decade wait. In 1989, Michelle Douglas was dismissed from the Canadian Forces, deemed “not advantageously employable due to homosexuality.” She sued for discrimination and won. Despite her victory that let the gay community serve openly in the military, Canada’s government never said it was sorry.

That changed in November, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for historic discrimination against LGBTQ2 Canadian service members. It wasn’t just personal vindication for Douglas, but an inspiration.

“I feel even more committed now to join with fellow Canadians to create positive change in our world on other issues like the environment,” she says.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a formal apology to individuals harmed by federal practices that led to discrimination against LGBTQ2 people. []

At home in Canada, small but significant gestures show non-Indigenous Canadians are taking personal responsibility for reconciliation. In September, the Kahkewistahaw First Nation in Saskatchewan welcomed a public school’s football team from the town of Southey to their community school. Before the game, the Southey’s coach Kahkewistahaw coach Evan Taypotat with a traditional gift of tobacco — one of the four medicines sacred to First Nations.

Many of our country’s schools now start every day by acknowledging the Indigenous territory they stand on.

In the world of science, there were breakthroughs for cancer patients in Africa and babies born with opioid addiction.

In the world at large, Antonio Guterres took office as Secretary-General of the United Nations in January. One of his first acts was to appoint women to three of the UN’s top jobs, including deputy secretary-general, setting a global example for gender parity in leadership.

“It is this action, more than rhetoric, that moved us closer to gender equity,” says Kate White, president of the UN Association in Canada.

“It is this action, more than rhetoric, that moved us closer to gender equity,” says Kate White.

All year long, we were moved by the dedication of youth and their conviction for social justice.

Simryn and Jasmyn Singh, 15 and 11, teamed up with Got Bannock, an Indigenous community organization, to serve traditional Sikh and Indigenous food to Winnipeg’s homeless. In one act, they combined community service with the kind of intercultural exchange that has made Canada a beacon of diversity.

Looking back on 2017, you can call it a dumpster fire, or you can witness a thousand small flames igniting hope and inspiration. If you choose the latter, it becomes much easier to light your own spark for change in the year to come.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

You may not believe in the jolly man who flies around to hand out presents, but on Christmas Eve in 2012, we guarantee he was there, 400 kilometers above Earth, rocketing around the planet at 7.6 kilometers per second.

Chris Hadfield floated weightlessly through the International Space Station, playing Santa Claus, his crew fast asleep. Before the launch, he’d asked the crew’s families to write cards for their loved ones. Then there he was, hiding those messages for the other five astronauts to find on Christmas morning.

“Except, it wasn’t really Christmas morning, because when is morning (in space)?” Hadfield explains the complications of marking holidays while orbiting Earth every 92 minutes, seeing 16 sunrises each day.

We’ve celebrated the holidays with family in the Amazon and the Maasai Mara, pausing long enough to exchange gifts and catch up before returning to the build site, helping erect a school or dig a well. We know how important traditions are — even for those whose schedules demand unconventional Christmases. Seeking some perspective, we turned to Cmdr. Hadfield, who talked to us about turkey, trees, dessert and the crucial task of bringing Earth-bound traditions to outer space.

On the ground, tables are laden with sugar cookies and cakes. In the microgravity of the space station, crumbs pose a serious threat, and can clog ventilation filters. The solution was a dense — but divisive — treat. Hadfield’s crew enjoyed a traditional fruitcake on Christmas day.

“Strangely enough, it was made by Trappist Monks in the Ozarks (in the U.S.),” recalls Hadfield. “It kept beautifully, it’s not crumbly, so we just velcroed the package to the table and everyone could grab a little bit on the way by.”

In space, just like on Earth, this time of year is a chance to reset, and focus on our wellbeing and relationships

Compared to cutting-edge experiments and space walks, ensuring that holiday desserts can withstand space travel may seem frivolous. But in space, just like on Earth, this time of year is a chance to reset, and focus on our well-being and relationships. Fruitcake, stockings and tinsel are more powerful symbols to help mark this reflection than we realize — until we know that even astronauts turn to them in the cold recesses of space.

“For birthdays, for holidays, for deaths in the family, I treated it (all) very seriously because psychological health is fundamental to everything else being successful,” says Hadfield.

There was the special meal request: ready-to-eat turkey, reconstituted potatoes and processed vegetables. There was the two-foot-tall (61-cm) artificial Christmas tree, velcroed to a wall. There were personalized Christmas stockings stuffed full of chocolate and nuts.

Preparation for all holidays was vital to the mission. Hadfield’s American and Russian crew picked holidays from their respective cultures to celebrate, planning creative ways to make them both special and familiar.

Now home with his family, Hadfield is sharing that outlook with others, bringing that cross-cultural perspective to his forthcoming science-based variety show, Generator, premiering in Toronto in January.

Hadfield’s holiday in outer space offers a new perspective for terrestrial-bound merrymakers. Even floating through space, customs ground us.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-holiday-customs-abound-even-in-outer-space/feed0Chris Hadfield and the crew of the International Space Stationcraigkielburger5 tips for holiday donations and volunteeringhttp://o.canada.com/life/5-tips-for-holiday-donations-and-volunteering
http://o.canada.com/life/5-tips-for-holiday-donations-and-volunteering#respondThu, 07 Dec 2017 22:26:33 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766145As Cher Horowitz said in the 1995 cinematic epic Clueless, ’tis a far, far better thing doing stuff for other people. And now, as holiday cheer warms the coldest cockles of our hearts, the time is ripe to give back. And, it’s needed.

Canadians donated seven per cent less to charities in 2015 than they did in 2006, a drop of roughly $600 million, reports CanadaHelps, an online platform that lets do-gooders donate and fundraise for Canadian charities.

We’re also volunteering less. Looking at data from 2013, the latest available from national non-profit Volunteer Canada, formal volunteering dropped among Canadians between 2010 and 2013 — from 13.3 million people in 2010 down to 12.7 million in 2013.

Here are a few tips for sharing the love this holiday season.

1. SPREAD OUT YOUR GENEROSITY

Of the nearly $170 million in annual donations that CanadaHelps processes, more than a third comes in the last six weeks of the year. Though repeat airings of It’s a Wonderful Life may help foster the giving mood, some people are also rushing to claim charitable donations on their tax returns before year’s end.

“I’ve seen the cash crunch charities can have in the middle of summer while they’re waiting for November and December,” she says, “so I have been encouraging people to set up monthly donations at CanadaHelps, because you’ll avoid scrambling at the end of the year. And it’s fantastic for charities because they have a more predictable cash flow.”

[Tim Boyle/Getty Images]

2. GIVE HELP WHERE IT’S NEEDED

“The charities we talk to often tell us they can stretch a dollar more than they can a can of food,” says Glogovac. “So I would say that if people are donating items, they should check with the charity to make sure that they’re items they need.”

In terms of volunteering, opportunities with seniors and children may be limited, since there may already be volunteers who work with them year-round and have passed the required background checks.

“But there are many places that offer holiday meals and so on that are very happy to have people volunteer for food preparation, hosting, serving, cleaning, setup and all those things,” says Paula Speevak, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada.

3. THINK OUTSIDE THE GIFT BOX

“Rather than giving socks or a sweater, we suggest turning some of those gifts into a charitable gift — a gift you give as a tribute to someone on your list who may love a particular cause,” says Glogovac.

Gift cards are also popular on the CanadaHelps website. With a few mouse clicks and perhaps a sigh of relief, you can prepare a generic charity gift card in any denomination, which the recipient can then redeem with any charity registered with the organization.

Fundraising is also an option: “A lot of people are fundraising for charity instead of getting gifts. And they are asking their friends to help them,” says Glogovac, while Speevak adds that informal volunteering is proving popular.

“People might raise funds for a neighbour who needs to have their vanity redone to make it accessible, or organize an awareness event on Parliament Hill through social media,” she says. “People are self-organizing outside of organizations around issues and accomplishing things that are important.”

[Getty Images/iStockphoto]

4. GET THE WHOLE FAMILY INVOLVED

“Many families choose to volunteer as a family, and many meal programs also encourage families to volunteer together. Sometimes it’s not feasible to volunteer in the community as a family, but you can do something that’s of benefit at home,” says Speevak.

For example, some animal shelters appreciate getting toys for their furry and feathered residents, and their websites often provide instructions. Kids can help with the handiwork at home, and everyone can deliver the toys together.

Another option that lets families help other families: Habitat for Humanity GTA has partnered with Realtors and The Canadian Real Estate Association for the website GingerbreadDreamHome.ca. There, Canadians can tour an imaginary home and donate towards a local Habitat for Humanity project. The deadline to donate is Dec. 13.

5. LEAD WITH YOUR VALUES

The giving season doesn’t have to end on Dec. 31. Speevak suggests taking time now to think about the issues that are important to you and how you want to help your community throughout the next year. The Volunteer Canada website or a local volunteering centre can provide ideas.

“There’s everything from painting sets for a local theatre company to teaching someone the skills involved in resume writing, to doing mock job interviews, to singing in a nursing home,” she says. “It’s endless, in terms of the things you can do.”

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/5-tips-for-holiday-donations-and-volunteering/feed0Charitymhank2012DonationsGlobal Voices: How Barâa Arar found herself through activismhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-how-baraa-arar-found-herself-through-activism
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-how-baraa-arar-found-herself-through-activism#respondTue, 05 Dec 2017 07:12:48 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=766098Barâa Arar was five years old when her father, Maher, was taken.

Back then, she didn’t know he’d been detained by American authorities on a stopover in New York and sent back to Syria, the country of his birth, instead of home to Canada.

She was too young to understand that it was the RCMP who supplied the faulty intelligence that mistakenly tied him to terrorists.

And it would be years before she realized that he was never charged or convicted, yet for 10 months he languished in a rat-infested, grave-sized cell, emerging only for beatings and bouts of torture.

All she knew was that her father was gone.

Fifteen years later, what she remembers are the protests on Parliament Hill and on the steps of the American embassy, demanding his release. The long days with her tireless mother, Monia Mazigh, who emerged as her husband’s strongest advocate.

Maher Arar’s story has made its way back into the headlines countless times since he returned to his family in Ottawa in 2003 — as revelations about the role of the RCMP led to an official inquiry, as the intelligence community owned up to their mistake, and as the government apologized.

Most powerfully, he’s become a symbol trotted out in the news whenever Canadians are unfairly targeted or detained.

Maher Arar’s story has made its way back into the headlines countless times since he returned to his family in Ottawa in 2003 [Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun Files]

For Arar, who only learned the details of her father’s story from the press years later, it’s not reliving it that bothers her, it’s this tragic need for the retelling.

“What’s upsetting is that is has to be told, all these years later, because we’re raising awareness about another injustice,” Arar reflects. What happened to her father has happened to other Canadians: Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin, Khaled Samy Abdallah Ismail— all Canadian citizens detained abroad and tortured over false accusations.

The Canadian government has since owned up to their involvement. Still, for Arar, it is clear: “We didn’t learn all the lessons,” she says.

Arar doesn’t refer to herself as an activist. She’s self-conscious of the title and would rather see others in the spotlight.

Still, she’s a focal point, partly because she is Maher Arar’s daughter and partly because she is an outspoken woman and a visible Muslim in an era of political and social division.

She’s become an unwitting symbol, too.

“Being a person of colour, being a Muslim woman who wears the hijab, or being anyone who identifies publicly with a minority group, that identity becomes politicized by others whether you like it or not.”

“Being a person of colour, being a Muslim woman who wears the hijab, or being anyone who identifies publicly with a minority group, that identity becomes politicized by others whether you like it or not,” she says.

And like her mother before her, she’s stepped into the role.

That’s why she wanted to be onstage at WE Day Ottawa, the youth empowerment event held a few weeks ago: to be a positive public presence for young women and young Muslims at a divisive time.

Arar still attends rallies. Now, it’s to perform her spoken-word poetry, to give voice to those creating space for immigrants and refugees.

She’s drawn lessons from both her parents and become more comfortable with her own voice, and her inherited role.

“It’s important for me to take the space that I’m offered,” she says. “You have more power than you think.”

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

This week, new provincial legislation takes effect, banning the hunt for sport. It’s a win for environmental activists and Indigenous groups — but more importantly, it’s informed by Western science and generations of Indigenous knowledge, an early step toward a new type of collaborative conservation.

When the grizzly bear hunt was reinstituted in 2001, many First Nations wanted to end the practice for conservation and cultural reasons, and brought these concerns to the provincial government.

“The government came to the table with 10-year (old) statistical modelling data from flyovers and tree covering,” says Hadley Archer, executive director of TNC Canada, an affiliate of the world’s largest conservation organization. Government scientists then extrapolated from one part of the province to estimate for others, essentially “guessing” the number of bears in certain regions, he says.

“Meanwhile (First Nations) communities knew where the bears were because they see them all the time. They literally have relationships with individual animals.”

Data and models faced off against cultural knowledge and first-hand experience.

The data won. The hunt continued.

[The Canadian Press]

But while the B.C. government was picking numbers over Indigenous experience, traditional ecological knowledge is gaining a foothold in academia and conservation circles. Thousands of years of lived experience and a deep connection to the land go into Indigenous knowledge, explains Kelsey Dokis-Jansen, Indigenous Initiatives Manager at the University of Alberta.

“The rigour is equal to or greater than that of Western science,” she says. “Just because it doesn’t look like the data that those trained in science can interpret does not mean it is not real.”

While grizzly bears remained in the scopes of hunters, concerned First Nations spent the next ten years enhancing traditional knowledge with “data the government would respect,” says Archer. To influence policy, they had to speak bureaucrat — and put knowledge into numbers.

A group of First Nations from across central British Columbia, including the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’Xais and Wuikinuxv nations, worked with conservation organizations to track bear populations. Their economic assessments proved the value of ecotourism dwarfed the money brought in from hunting licences and guides. And extensive public polls showed nearly 90 per cent of British Columbians supported a ban on the trophy hunt.

To influence policy, First Nations groups had to speak bureaucrat—and put centuries of traditional knowledge into numbers.

The new data corroborated what the First Nations had been saying — and convinced the government to end the hunt. “(Taking) what First Nations already know, packaging it in a way that governments accept is a temporary state,” says Aaron Heidt, program director at Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance. The goal is building understanding between both parties, “to work together to solve the same problems.”

Gathering data and generating models has been the go-to method to inform environmental policy — but Archer, Heidt and Dokis-Jansen agree there is room for other tools in the tool box. Indigenous groups are often the ones living closest to the land. Their daily experiences and real-time observations can also drive policy.

“There are many ways of knowing the world, statistics and data are just one,” says Dokis-Jansen. “That’s pretty hard to grasp if you haven’t lived it, but I am hopeful we will get there.”

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-grizzly-trophy-hunting-ban-a-win-for-british-columbia/feed0Grizzly bearcraigkielburgerGlobal Voices: Beware of hidden messages in memeshttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-beware-of-hidden-messages-in-memes
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-beware-of-hidden-messages-in-memes#respondTue, 21 Nov 2017 07:21:54 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765999A man gapes over his shoulder at the pretty girl who just passed him on the street. Beside him, his girlfriend glares in outrage. The punchline is in the captions: the head-turner is the new iPhone X, while the jilted girlfriend is the already-passé iPhone 8.

You’ve probably seen — and shared — some version of this popular “distracted boyfriend” meme on Facebook or Instagram. It’s meant to be a commentary on the superficial fixation that comes with shiny new things.

But what else does the image say?

People love memes — those attention-grabbing images and zinger captions on our social media feeds. Science has shown we get a dose of happy brain chemicals like dopamine every time we share the latest LOLcat or Gene Wilder’s smirking sarcastic Willy Wonka.

Memes can be entertaining, insightful … or toxic.

Russian hackers created and planted propagandist memes to inflame both sides in last year’s U.S. presidential election. Even memes not generated by meddling foreign governments are hurting political debate on social media, argues Ottawa-based digital media consultant Mark Blevis. In place of written comments that require at least some thought, people deploy duelling “crooked” Hillary and Trump “covfefe” images to express their opinion.

“Memes replace thoughtful conversation and prevent us from finding common ground between different opinions,” says Blevis.

“Memes replace thoughtful conversation and prevent us from finding common ground between different opinions.”

Beyond politics, seemingly innocuous and funny memes can carry negative messages. Take our “distracted boyfriend” example. Eric Alper, music-industry blogger and social media guru, poses an important question: “If you took away the words, what would you think of this picture?”

Now it’s two sexist implications all in one image — a man ogling a woman in the street, and the tired stereotype of a jealous girlfriend.

Racist groups have even turned to humour memes to spread their poison — like hijacking cartoon Pepe the Frog.

Things that make us laugh can distract us from donning our critical-thinking hats. We hit Like and share content without considering the potential harm we’re helping to spread.

“Humour is the best way to get a message across — good or bad,” says Alper.

People who would never dream of telling a sexist joke at the family dinner table will share a picture of a woman in a business suit with the caption: “Makes more money than you, still expects you to pay for everything.”

Share the wrong meme, and you could be bullying someone without even knowing it. Many images are stolen from personal profiles and websites. In 2014, an American travel blogger wrote about the trauma of having a selfie pilfered and turned into a viral anti-Obamacare meme.

We don’t want to get totally down on memes. Many are legitimately hilarious. But part of social media literacy is recognizing that what’s funny on the surface may not be so amusing underneath. Ask yourself: Would I tell this joke to my parents? When you take the words away, what message does the picture convey? Does this meme really contribute to this political discussion, or am I just trolling?

So think before you share, or the next person mocked in Willy Wonka’s meme could be you.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-beware-of-hidden-messages-in-memes/feed0A “distracted boyfriend” meme can either be a commentary on the superficial fixation that comes with shiny new things. But it can also have a negative connotationcraigkielburgerGlobal Voices: Canadian military presence not always peacekeepinghttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-canadian-military-presence-not-always-peacekeeping
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-canadian-military-presence-not-always-peacekeeping#commentsTue, 14 Nov 2017 07:17:35 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765885When four American Green Berets were killed in a deadly ambush in Niger last month, the first reaction from many was surprise: When did the War on Terror sprawl to West Africa?

A major part of the incident’s news cycle consisted of pundits struggling to answer this very fundamental question. Here at home, “probably even fewer people know that Canada is (also) in Niger,” says Laurier University professor Timothy Donais.

Donais is referring to Task Force NABERIUS, an elite team of 24 Canadian Armed Forces members on the ground in Niger since 2013. They’re training the Nigerien military in everything from counter-terrorism to the protection of vulnerable populations. The low-key mission is billed as capacity-building — but as the recent events in Niger demonstrate, all military operations in unstable regions carry risks.

Operation NABERIUS is a small contingent of soldiers, to be sure. Taken with other ongoing military engagements around the world, however, it paints a very different picture of our army than the one imprinted on Canada’s national consciousness.

We see ourselves as peacekeepers, but the very nature of peacekeeping has changed.

With all the talk of how “the world needs more Canada”— and in light of this year’s United Nations conference on peacekeeping in Vancouver, where delegates from dozens of nations are gathering on Tuesday and Wednesday — the national debate has focused exclusively on how Canada can support UN efforts. But this dialogue risks overlooking the vast majority of the Canadian army’s current missions. “That’s a general misperception among Canadians,” says Queen’s University professor Joel Sokolsky. “The major focus of the Canadian Armed Forces is overseas in support of our allies, not in support of the United Nations.”

Canadian military instructors at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center [Getty Images]

Beyond UN missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Haiti and the Golan Heights — and the high-profile engagements in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, there are Canadian forces in Latvia and Kosovo. Canadian navy ships patrol the eastern Pacific Ocean to fight drug trafficking. Air force cargo planes transport personnel and equipment in Mali. Military engineers and doctors operate in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Officers train Palestinian Authority Security Forces in Jerusalem. Soldiers deliver aid in the wake of hurricanes in the Caribbean.

Canada’s military is already present around the world — just not always as peacekeepers.

Many current missions are “more green helmet than blue,” says Sokolsky — meaning they involve more military might than peacekeeping vigilance, and don’t fit the Canadian national identity in the same way that standing on guard for peace once did.

“The era of classic peacekeeping is long gone,” he says.

Instead, we’re in an era of peace enforcement — a riskier mandate to neutralize more than act as impartial mediator. Even as the government mulls over an additional 600 peacekeeping troops, they’ve taken pains to acknowledge the complexity of realities on the ground.

Traditional peacekeeping may be disappearing — but it’s not forgotten.

Within sight of Parliament Hill in downtown Ottawa, three towering bronze soldiers stand atop a pedestal of stone, a monument to Canada’s peacekeeping history. The world needs more Canada — blue helmets or green — and we should be proud to honour both.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-canadian-military-presence-not-always-peacekeeping/feed1CanadacraigkielburgerCanadian PeacekeepingGlobal Voices: Upgrade to the new Neighbourhood Watchhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-upgrade-to-the-new-neighbourhood-watch
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-upgrade-to-the-new-neighbourhood-watch#respondTue, 07 Nov 2017 07:52:59 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765779After fleeing Syria to settle in Winnipeg early this year, Mannan Hamrasho was beaten and robbed, his children bullied at school, and his new home tagged with racist graffiti.

A neighbour, James Favel, got word of the incidents. He rushed over with a gift basket of treats and colouring books for the kids, and the promise of a better Canadian welcome. The Hamrasho family is now under the protective care of Favel’s Bear Clan Patrol, a community organization taking the neighbourhood watch to a new level.

Following our neighbours to the south, Canadian neighbourhood watch groups started forming in the 1970s as a means of crime prevention. Designated residents called police when they spotted vandals or thieves. Today, crime rates are falling on average — 29 per cent lower than a decade ago — so you might assume the need for watch groups would dwindle. Meanwhile, other social challenges are increasing: an aging population, more immigrants and refugees acclimating to new culture, and youth and family homelessness.

Today, watch groups that form new mandates can be even more neighbourly.

The Bear Clan Patrol was founded in 1992 to address violence against Indigenous women in Winnipeg’s North End, an at-risk neighbourhood. Since 2015, Favel and others evolved the patrol mandate. The group is now a welcome wagon, resource service, cleanup crew, conflict meditator and youth organization all in one. Their most recent event was an open house for New Canadians, including the Hamrasho family.

“On patrol, we’re like goodwill ambassadors. We want to get back that feeling of living together as a village,” says Favel, executive director of the Bear Clan Patrol.

“On patrol, we’re like goodwill ambassadors. We want to get back that feeling of living together as a village.”

When patrollers encounter someone in need — any need — they act as a link to community resources. Favel tells us they’ve connected homeless individuals with housing and employment services, addicts with rehab facilities, and even helped citizens get enumerated to vote.

Along their routes, Bear Clan members pick up trash, particularly used drug paraphernalia. Since this past spring, Favel estimates his teams have collected more than 3,000 discarded needles.

All of the patrollers are volunteers who receive instruction in physical and mental health first aid. A few are also trained in non-violent conflict resolution. A local paramedic service was so impressed with Bear Clan’s work that they donated a defibrillator — and the time to teach members how to use it.

Youth under 18 cannot join Bear Clan’s evening patrols for safety reasons, so the organization runs “mock patrols” for young people. These daylight excursions with elder Bear Clan volunteers provide lessons in street proofing and drug awareness, and give youth a chance to become part of the fabric of their community.

“I have 14-year-olds who want to spend their evenings with Bear Clan when they turn 18, instead of going to bars,” says Favel.

Your community may not face the same intense challenges the Bear Clan handles in Winnipeg. Still, there are many ways for a creative neighbourhood watch group to make a difference — shovelling snow for elderly neighbours, delivering meals to exhausted new parents, or welcoming an immigrant family.

That’s what watching out for each other really looks like.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories at we.org.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-upgrade-to-the-new-neighbourhood-watch/feed0Neighbourhood watchcraigkielburgerFlour Power host Jessica McGovern keeps desserts retro and funhttp://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/flour-power-host-jessica-mcgovern-keeps-desserts-retro-and-fun
http://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/flour-power-host-jessica-mcgovern-keeps-desserts-retro-and-fun#commentsMon, 06 Nov 2017 20:59:38 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765807Of all the hobbies filling Jessica McGovern’s time — acting, singing, dancing, playing piano and kung fu — she chose in her new TV series to focus on the one that would cause her dad the most duress: baking desserts.

“I am helplessly addicted to sugar. My poor dad is a dentist, so he’d kill me, but I’m giving business to dentists!” she says with a laugh.

McGovern runs the baking school Lincoln Apartment Bakery in Montreal and just released the Lincoln Apartment Bakery Cookbook, a compilation of foolproof recipes with insider tips and shortcuts. She also hosts the retro-tastic baking show Flour Power, airing Fridays on Gusto.

Dolled up in 1950s-inspired garb and picture-perfect pincurls, McGovern favours recipes that could give you cavities by association: Think blueberry-cream cheese strudel, carrot cake with caramel drip, raspberry-chocolate ganache torte, s’mores bars and chocolate-chip cookies, among others. The inspirations for her confections are global.

“I’ve worked in Ghana, China, Argentina, France, Scotland, and now I’m pretty settled in Canada. I’m always looking for new flavours, always trying to pick up classes from local teachers, wherever I am,” she says.

“One of my most popular classes in my school in Montreal is Japanese cheesecake. I discovered that one a few years ago in a basement in a train station in Osaka, and I just couldn’t believe I’d never come across it before.”

Growing up in Ireland, McGovern started helping her mom in the kitchen when she was around six, perfecting things like brown bread and scones. One perennial family favourite? Victorian sponge cake.

“It’s a really simple cake, and I still make it at least once a week in some form,” she says.

“It’s like four ingredients and you can dress it up any way you want — in our house it was often jam, cream and strawberries. We’d sandwich two layers of cake together with lots of whipped cream.”

Keeping with the whimsical retro theme (“baking is fun and playful,” she explains), McGovern shared two recipes that would look right at home on the snazziest of formica-and-chrome kitchen tables.

Lavender Angel Food Cake [Gusto/Bell]

Lavender Angel Food Cake

Ease of preparation: Medium

Yield: 1 (10-inch) cake

“The secret to angel food cake is that the egg whites are all whipped up so you get the air in there, which is what makes it so heavenly. For this one, we put lavender into the merengue frosting, which is a nice twist and gives such a lovely aroma and flavour.”

Use a spice grinder to crush lavender buds and add to mixture. Beat until stiff peaks form. Mix flour and icing sugar into a bowl.

Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the egg white mixture and fold in gently. Repeat for next 1/3. Repeat for last 1/3.

Scoop into an ungreased angel food cake tin. Run a knife blade around the pan in a wiggly line — this will get rid of air bubbles.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Place inverted with the open centre of the pan balanced on the neck of a wine bottle to cool for at least 30 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of the cake pan to release the cake. Place onto a serving platter.

To make the frosting, add egg whites, caster sugar, cream of tartar, and water to a double boiler. Heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Add red and blue food colouring. Whip until stiff peaks form.

Spread on the angel food cake. Top with lavender buds.

Orange-Vanilla Baked Alaska. []

Orange-Vanilla Baked Alaska

Ease of preparation: Hard

Yield: 1 (8-inch) cake

“Baked Alaska is such a fun dessert, but it can be a little intimidating. There’s nothing to be afraid of if the inside, which is frozen, is covered properly with the merengue. You can really crisp up the outside and make it hot and crunchy and delicious while still keeping the inside frozen. I find that really magical and so impressive for anyone you serve it to.”

Ingredients:

Frozen mousse

8 egg yolks (reserve egg whites for meringue)

1 cup (240 ml) sugar

2 tablespoons (30 ml) cornstarch

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla

¼ cup (60 ml) orange juice

2 tablespoons (30 ml) orange liqueur

2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream, cold

2 tablespoons (30 ml) orange zest

Chiffon cake

3 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons (90 ml) milk

2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil

½ vanilla bean, seeds only

1 cup (240 ml) cake flour, sifted

½ cup (120 ml) sugar, divided

¾ teaspoon (4 ml) baking powder

1/8 teaspoon (0.5 ml) salt

Swiss meringue

8 egg whites

1 cup (240 ml) sugar

¼ teaspoon (1 ml) salt

¼ teaspoon (1 ml) cream of tartar

1 teaspoon (5 ml) orange zest

2 ounces (60 g) orange liqueur, for browning

Method:

To make the frozen mousse, add egg yolks and sugar to a bowl and whisk. Add cornstarch, vanilla, orange juice, and orange liqueur and whisk to incorporate. Put bowl in a bain marie and cook until temperature reaches 180 F (80 C).

Remove from heat and beat until mixture has cooled. Put over top of bowl of ice to cool.

Fit into bowl with mousse, cutting away excess over the top of the bowl, and let freeze 4 hours or more.

To make the meringue, whisk together egg whites, sugar, and salt in a bain marie. Whisk until temperature reaches 150 F (65 C). Take off the heat, add cream of tartar and orange zest and beat until egg whites are thick and glossy.

Release mousse-cake from bowl. Spread meringue over cake. Use a confectionary torch to brown the meringue.

Measure 2 ounces (56 g) of orange liqueur. Place in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until it starts to simmer. Using a long-handled match, light liqueur on fire. Pour over Baked Alaska. Let flame die out — this should take a few seconds.

Jessica McGovern hosts Flour Power [Gusto/Bell]

MORE INSIDER TIPS

• Make sure your cake rises to the occasion: “Do not open the oven when you’re baking — that’s going to lead to everything collapsing on you. You’ve gotta have patience and keep the oven closed right until the end.”

• Keep your cheesecake from cracking: “A water bath is useful for things like cheesecakes, soufflés and crème brûlées. Put the tin into a bigger tin halfway full of water and let it cook in the oven while sitting in the water. That will really let things cook and rise much more gently.”

• Stop your pie dough from shrinking: “Make the dough, chill it, take it out and roll it out into your pie plate and chill it again. That chilling really helps everything stay the perfect shape and size when you put it in the oven.”

These heroes rarely make headlines, yet without them most of the United Nations’ goals would be unachievable. In honour of World UN Day this month, we raise our glasses to its least recognized champions — the statisticians.

These bean counters are changing the world.

“Counting counts. If we’re not counting, we can’t see where the gaps are and what we’ve accomplished,” says Kathryn White, president and CEO of the UN Association in Canada.

UN statisticians gather unimaginable reams of data that shape national and global policy in every imaginable area. Their calculations can alter our understanding of global issues.

Perceptions about the role of women and the economy in developing regions changed drastically when UN statisticians delved deep into gender-specific stats in the early 1990s, White says.

Previously, poverty-fighting initiatives rarely considered gender. But crunched numbers indicated that targeted investment in women’s empowerment had a major impact on poverty and other social issues. Every additional year that a girl attends school results in a 9.5 per cent decrease in child mortality. Increasing income for women results in better education and health for children; they are more likely than men to use resources to benefit the whole family.

Governments and development organizations shifted focus to women’s empowerment.

Studies also showed that men tended to hoard food aid rations for sale, while women were more likely to share it with their families, leading to better child nutrition. So food aid programs began began working directly with women wherever possible.

The UN’s flagship statistical document, the annual Human Development Report, launched in 1990, has inspired more than 140 countries to engage in similar statistical self-examination, supported by the UN, with big benefits. During Uganda’s AIDS epidemic, better data tracked factors that spread the disease, leading to programs that have significantly reduced the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The country of Jordan identified its most impoverished districts, and targeted them with employment and development programs, boosting quality of life.

Today, the UN Statistics Division partners with more than 30 national statistics agencies around the world, building and mining big data that will help both the UN and individual countries develop policies and programs to address social and environmental issues. For example, together the UN and Statistics Canada developed indexes on remoteness and accessibility to services like health care and transportation. These will help future programs for hard-to-reach rural and northern communities.

“We need to ensure that everyone is counted, especially the most poor and vulnerable. We need local statistics to ensure that every child has access to education and we need global statistics to monitor the overall effects of climate change,” said Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary General, in a statement for World Statistics Day earlier this month.

So here’s to the analysts, the number-crunchers and the bean counters of the UN. The knowledge they provide promotes world change.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

Here’s hoping you reach your 90s with even half of the vigour and vitality of Ken Walker. The 94-year-old surgeon, newspaper columnist (Dr. W. Gifford-Jones) and author of 90+ How I Got There (Act Natural Corp, 2015) puts most 40-year-olds to shame in terms of energy, mental clarity, work ethic and sheer nerve.

“I’m always coming up with ideas,” he says over the phone from his home in Toronto. “That scares the hell out of Susan, my wife, when I say I’ve got an idea. That’s when she starts to worry,” he quips.

Some of those ideas have been good — some fall into the category of “good intentions.” In June, he decided it would be a good idea to take part in a charity event led by his son, a longtime Wish Granter for the Make-A-Wish Foundation that raises money to grant wishes to children with life-threatening illness. The Rope for Hope challenge required him to rappel 30 storeys down the side of city hall in Toronto. “My wife was not amused and my son worried.”

The daredevil confesses that even he wondered if he was crazy when the day came (for the record: not only had he never rappelled before, he’d never even heard of it).

“I must admit when I drove up to city hall and when I saw some people rappelling down like flies, I thought Aie-yi-yi.”

The ride was “bumpy” and he flipped upside down at one point. “I banged my head a bit and ended up with a few bruises. But I made it to the bottom.”

Ask him what’s the secret to longevity and the author attributes it to the combination of “good genes, good luck, good sense and good rum.”

Ken Walker rappelled 30 storeys down Toronto’s city hall in June during a charity event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. [Gordon Cheong]

Exercise, weighing yourself daily, skipping processed foods and dessert, not smoking and not taking prescription drugs all fall under the “good sense” rubric for Walker (advice he details in his book, which was published when he was 92).

His approach to health is provocative — even a bit rock ’n’ roll. He rages against do-gooders who preach abstemiousness and believes that alcohol, when enjoyed in moderation, is a health tonic (and so much so that he believes there should be a pub in every hospital).

He also advocates an active sex life. “Sex is good exercise. If you have sex three times a week in a year, you’ll burn off 7,500 calories. I’d rather do that then jog 35 miles to burn those calories,” he says.

Sex and rum aside, it’s not easy following his advice. “It’s hard work,” he says. But committing to that effort may play a role in aging well, too. A quick survey of Walker’s full life reveals he’s never been one to shy away from hard work.

The self-confessed workaholic has divided much of his adult working life between two full-time jobs. When he wasn’t administering to his patients in his gynecology practice, the Harvard-educated surgeon was writing. His first book, Hysterectomy: A Book for the Patient (University of Toronto, 1961), was published under the pseudonym Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, a moniker he chose to avoid being accused of using a public profile to solicit for patients.

“The publisher of my first book said when I gave him the name: ‘I like the ring of it and I have the image of a silver-haired surgeon to the Queen of England!’ ”

“I was always for women’s rights and that got me into trouble,” he confides.

Fourteen years and two books later (he’s written nine in total), he made his debut in the Globe and Mail. Today, he’s syndicated in more than 80 papers in Canada and the U.S.

Though he’s retired from his gynecology practice — he saw his last patient at the age of 87 — he’s still writes daily. When asked which of his careers he’s preferred — the doctor’s life or the journalist’s — he says, “both.” That affection for serving the public, both in his practice and as a medical journalist, has seen him stick his neck out in support of controversial health topics over the years.

“I was always for women’s rights and that got me into trouble,” he confides.

His early support for a woman’s right to abortion and access to birth control came at a steep private cost for both him and his family, who were then based in Niagara Falls, Ont. After the law permitting limited abortions in Canada was passed in 1969, “doctors began referring abortions to me and I did them. That’s when life became very difficult,” he shares.

He received death threats and spent nearly a year sleeping with a gun under his pillow.

He received death threats and spent nearly a year sleeping with a gun under his pillow.

A fierce advocate for patients’ rights, he’s used his profile to push for more humane medical care.

In 1979, he penned a column advocating that pharmaceutical-grade heroin be made legal to use as a pain killer for terminal cancer patients, a compassionate practice that had been legal in England for more than a century at the time.

The column struck a chord. “I had 1,200 readers write to me.” He ran with that public support and became an advocate for change.

Eventually, he would deliver 40,000 letters of support to the Minister of Health in Ottawa and was instrumental in seeing the practice legalized in 1984. (It’s remained controversial and has been subject to much back and forth politically. It was banned by Conservatives at one point, but is currently permitted.)

He’s also long been publicly in favour of assisted dying. “We should all have the right to determine our own life and freedom of choice about how we die,” he says.

The good doctor is blunt in his assessment of those who oppose it on the basis of spiritual or ethical concerns. “As Aristotle once said, ‘there’s a stupid corner in the brain of every wise person.’”

Asked if he would do it all again, he hesitates briefly before saying yes. “If I didn’t do it all again, I would be a hypocrite.”

And yes, he’d like another crack at rappelling, too.

“I think I could do it better.”

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/keeping-up-with-dr-w-gifford-jones/feed0Dr. Ken Walker, also known as Dr. W. Gifford-Jonespostmedianews1Ken WalkerGlobal Voices: A tip of the hat for Gordhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-a-tip-of-the-hat-for-gord
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-a-tip-of-the-hat-for-gord#respondTue, 24 Oct 2017 06:57:28 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765651Backstage, Gord Downie struggled to walk, hands braced on a friend’s shoulders. Yet when he stepped into the stage lights in Toronto, Gord transformed.

From deep reserves he drew strength for the first live performance of The Stranger, off his Secret Path project, and throughout a haunting musical interlude, Gord walked unassisted. He paced the length of the stage with short, stiff strides, every step dedicated to Chanie Wenjack’s last journey.

In more than a decade, we’d never seen a WE Day audience so still. That night in mid-October 2016, singing alongside Pearl Wenjack to tell her brother Chanie’s story, Gord began what he called the most important work of his life.

The Tragically Hip’s final tour had ended just weeks before, and he would spend the next few months on WE Day stages across the country introducing Canadians to Chanie, the 12-year-old boy who died walking, following train tracks while running away from a residential school.

Like all Canadians, we got pulled into the gravitational wake of Gord.

He talked about legacy. Not his own — that had long been cemented in the hearts of Canadian music lovers — but what all of us will leave behind as a nation. He once quipped that people were growing tired of him, having spent a year saying one long goodbye. It was a dark joke, playing at his own mortality. He was the only one who laughed at it, but we understood the subtext.

To accompany the Secret Path album, Gord Downie teamed up with illustrator Jeff Lemire for a graphic novel

Gord wasn’t concerned about his own place in public memory — his final year was dedicated to raising awareness about the impact of residential schools, the long road ahead for reconciliation, and the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Foundation.

Hidden in his self-effacing humour was his greatest fear — he didn’t want the public attention for his cause to die with him.

The Tragically Hip created the soundtrack for Canada. We learned to drive with their iconic songs playing in the background. They wrote the music for campfire singalongs and awkward school dances.

But that is not Gord’s legacy.

Gord dedicated the final year of his life to the most difficult and important conversation we need to have as a nation. Generations from now, he will be remembered as much for his voice as for giving voice to others.

At WE Day Canada this past summer, a youth choir surprised Gord with their own rendition of his mournful tune about Chanie’s story. Through watery eyes, Gord watched 100 young singers interpret his most significant work, taking up the torch for his greatest cause.

As the choir drew to a close, each member pulled out a velvet hat, a tribute to the frontman’s iconic style. With their final notes, they tipped their hats to him.

Let’s all tip our hats to Gord now. Don’t let the project that took up his final months and last energy die with him.

In every city, people would ask Gord how to get involved. He said he was a singer and a poet, so he wrote and sang about it. What do you have to give? If each of us finds our own way to contribute to reconciliation, we honour the legacy of Gord Downie.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-a-tip-of-the-hat-for-gord/feed0Gord DowniecraigkielburgerSweet potatoes say cheesehttp://o.canada.com/life/food/sweet-potatoes-say-cheese
http://o.canada.com/life/food/sweet-potatoes-say-cheese#commentsFri, 20 Oct 2017 21:51:11 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765628Sweet potatoes were a vegetable I came to enjoy in adulthood. They weren’t served at my family dinner table and when served elsewhere they were terrifyingly sweet.

There were marshmallows on top, or heaps of brown sugar and pecans.

Marshmallows were for Rice Krispies squares, roasting on the end of a stick or bobbing on hot chocolate. To experience them on top of a vegetable was just plain weird because dessert is supposed to come later, not along with the meat.

No offence meant to all marshmallows-on-sweet-potato-lovers out there. Marshmallow on!

A large part of the world’s population enjoys them as a sweet. They are popular in Mexico, Southeast Asia, China, Japan and the Philippines as a candied or roasted snack purchased from street vendors.

The “yams” we grow here are actually sweet potatoes. Yams are native to Africa and sweet potatoes to the Americas.

“Yam” might be used because of the slave trade. Seeing the sweet potato, African slaves might have called it “nyami,” the name of a similar plant they were used to eating.

While we’re on the subject, the purple Filipino yam known as “ube” is not a sweet potato. It is a yam.

Yams belong to the Dioscorea family and sweet potatoes to Convolvulaceae. The leaves and stems of the plant are edible. The young leaves can be eaten raw, the older ones cooked like kale or beet greens.

When I started cooking sweet potatoes, I discovered that for my tastes, they needed a counterpoint.

When I started cooking sweet potatoes, I discovered that for my tastes, they needed a counterpoint.

Blue cheese was great and so was Parmesan. Crystallized or fresh ginger and Middle Eastern or Indian spicing was also very good.

And I was good with adding a drizzle of maple syrup or honey to coax up the sweetness a little without making it cloying.

It’s a very exciting time in sweet potato land because of the varieties available.

Toss with the oil, thyme and salt and arrange on two, large, rimmed baking sheets.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, turning over halfway through the baking time until tender. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. With a fork, press down on each round to crush it slightly.

Combine the butter, garlic, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce. Spoon a little over each round. Pop under the broiler 8 inches (20 cm) from the heat until lightly browned.

Top each with the cheese and return to the broiler until the cheese is bubbly. Serve immediately.

Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Dukkah []

Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Dukkah

Dukkah is an Egyptian blend of nuts — commonly hazelnuts, though others can be used or added — sesame seeds and spices.

Usually used as a dip with olive oil for bread, it’s wonderful sprinkled on feta, chicken and white fish. Most supermarkets carry it if you don’t feel like making it, though fresher is better.

Makes: 6-8 servings

2 lb (907 g) sweet potatoes, peeled

4 tbsp (60 mL) extra virgin olive oil

1½ tsp (7.5 mL) salt

2 tbsp (30 mL) unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp (30 mL) honey

3-4 tbsp (45-60 mL) dukkah, recipe follows

Heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). If you have great knife skills, slice the potatoes into 1/16 to1/8-inch (1.5-3 mm) rounds. If not, use a food processor or mandoline.

Toss the slices with the oil and salt. The slices will tend to clump together and that’s fine, don’t worry about getting them all coated.

Make stacks out of the potatoes and arrange them vertically, starting at the edge of a 12 to 13-inch (30.5-33 cm) long oval baking dish. Press down lightly to fan them out nicely in the dish as you go along.

Cover the dish with a lid or foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours until the potatoes are tender.

Combine the melted butter and honey and brush over the top of the potatoes. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes longer until browned.

Sprinkle with the dukkah and serve with the remaining dukkah on the side.

Hazelnut Dukkah

1 tsp (5 mL) black peppercorns

1 tbsp (15 mL) coriander seeds

2 tsp (10 mL) cumin seeds

1/4 tsp (1 mL) fennel seeds

1 tsp (5 mL) kosher salt

2 tbsp (30 mL) roasted sesame seeds

1/3 cup (80 mL) roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

In a small, dry frying pan over medium heat, roast the peppercorns, stirring frequently, until fragrant. Remove to a plate.

Add the coriander, cumin and fennel seed to the pan and roast, stirring frequently until the coriander turns a shade darker. Remove to a separate plate.

Grind the peppercorns finely and add to the hazelnuts. Grind the remaining ingredients coarsely and add to the hazelnuts and pepper. Mix well. Store sealed in a cool dark place.

Charged with petty theft, the 18-year-old might have been let off with a warning. Instead, when her file was run through state software designed to predict recidivism rates, Borden was rated high-risk and her bond was set at $1,000.

She didn’t have an adult criminal record. Algorithms predicted her likelihood to reoffend based on her race — Borden is black.

Will a machine dispense blind justice, or can robots be racist?

Since the early 2000s, various state courts have used computer programs and machine learning to inform decisions on bail and sentencing. On paper, this makes sense. With prison populations ballooning across the U.S., artificial intelligence promises to take the human bias out of judgements, creating a fairer legal system — in theory.

Looking into 7,000 risk assessments, Pro Publica concluded the programs have mistakenly targeted black defendants. The report isolated other factors, like criminal history, age and gender — black defendants were still 77 per cent more likely to be labelled high-risk of violent crime compared with white defendants.

“We like to think that computers will save us,” says software producer and diversity advocate Shana Bryant. “But we seem to forget that algorithms are written by humans.”

Even code is embedded with social bias.

“The main ingredient [in artificial intelligence] is data,” explains Parinaz Sobhani, director of machine learning for Georgian Partners. The more information is fed through algorithms, the more precise the patterns and predications become.

Even code is embedded with social bias.

“The question is, where is the data coming from?”

We are at the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence. And to make sure machines don’t mimic society’s implicit prejudices, we need people from all backgrounds coding them.

Borden’s case of algorithmic injustice is just one example. Machine learning is heralded as the future of everything from policing to healthcare.

But making fair machines depends on our ability to supply fair data. In Canada, for instance, indigenous people are overwhelmingly overrepresented in prison populations. Meanwhile, a persistent wage gap remains between women and men. If we don’t address the systemic failings surrounding these problems, we can’t expect machines to fix them while working with the same data.

Socially corrupt data massively failed an early image-recognition software designed by Google that categorized black people as gorillas. The program, meant to sort photos based on their subjects, was tested exclusively on white people. The tech sector, despite many efforts to the contrary, remains overwhelmingly white and male.

“If we don’t have a diverse group of people building technology, it will only serve a very small percentage of people: those who built it,” explains Melissa Sariffodeen, co-founder and CEO of Ladies Learning Code.

That’s why questions about who gets hired in the tech sector are about more than equality in the workforce.

“We are at a nexus point,” explains Bryant. If we don’t prioritize diverse voices in these emerging technologies, the future will have robots — but no less prejudice.

Humanitarians, activists and social entrepreneurs, brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger are co-founders of WE, an organization that makes doing good, doable. WE works with developing communities in nine countries, and empowers youth in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom by connecting them with global issues and social causes. WE Day is the annual celebration of these young change-makers, held in more than 15 cities worldwide.

Marc and Craig are syndicated columnists and authors of more than 10 books, including The World Needs Your Kid, and the New York Times bestseller Me to We. Their work has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as on CNN, BBC, 60 Minutes and The Today Show, and in People, Time and The Economist

And while there might be some Paleolithic paintings somewhere of a Franco-cavelady with her animal pelts draped just so, one of the most groundbreaking expressions of French fashion is Christian Dior’s New Look esthetic of 1947.

The Collection, a miniseries airing Sundays under PBS’s Masterpiece banner, celebrates that era. With the Second World War a rapidly shrinking reflection in the country’s collective rear-view mirror, Paris is recovering from Nazi occupation and desperate to regain its status as the fashion capital of the world.

As they do in these types of sagas, the characters swirl in secrets and drama — but in The Collection they’re impeccably dressed while doing it. Costume designer Chattoune made sure of it. She tapped into the real-life fashion of the time for inspiration, logging hours at the fashion history museum Palais Galliera, but the goal was to evoke the era instead of outright copying it.

Richard Coyle as Paul in The Collection [PBS]

“First of all, we had to get rid of the idea of Dior, because of course New Look is attached to Dior. You know how fashion goes — you always have someone who does it better than the others or has stronger ideas. Basically the mood of it, the spirit of it, goes through all the designers at the same time. But I have to say Dior was definitely the best.”

A signature feature of the New Look era was fabric, and lots of it — in fact, some of Dior’s gowns demanded up to 40 meters worth. (Meanwhile, in post-war England, it was illegal to use more than three meters of fabric for a skirt.) Shoulders were girlish and rounded, skirts billowed insolently and waists seemed no wider than a croissant.

“We were just finishing the war and the restrictions of the war, especially on fabric. So because it’s Paris and fashion, they really wanted to be crazy about the amount of fabric,” says Chattoune, noting that designer Cristóbal Balenciaga was breaking ground with clean, sculptural lines in his own right.

“During the war, the women were dressed a bit manly. They had the trousers, the big broad shoulders, and designers wanted to get rid of all that. They wanted to go back to femininity.”

Over the eight-part miniseries, which was filmed in France, England and Wales, Chattoune and partner Fabien Esnard-Lascombe were pressed to create that feel of luxury (“l’opulence, as we say in France”) with a budget decidedly less haute couture and more prêt-à-porter. To wit, most costumes for the extras were rented.

Jenna Thiam as Nina in The Collection []

“The show, the time, the money — the whole thing makes it impossible to create clothing for everybody. But we did make for Helen two dresses. We custom-made all of Claude’s suits and we custom-made of course all the Claude designs. We custom-made about 40 or 50 pieces, which is a lot,” says Chattoune, who earned a César Award nomination for her work on the 2009 French film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky.

“I cannot say that we did it like haute couture, but really everything is handmade and very refined. We always know the best place to get the best fabric at the cheapest price. And I have to say, I have an amazing cutter and tailor. He can make our drawings come alive but also do it quick — time is money.”

Of all the looks in The Collection — Paul’s tailored power suits, Claude’s casual motorcycle gear, the models’ show-stopping gowns — Chattoune says few can translate the exactly same way today. It’s fashion fact.

“Not all of the pieces are timeless, to be honest. But every period has its timeless pieces,” she says, adding that fashion’s recent infatuation with the 1980s brazenly brought in elements from the 1940s.

“Whenever something is well cut and refined and beautiful, it goes over all periods. When it’s a good one, it’s a good one forever.”

The hospital looked more like a prison ward. Patients were sedated, living in their own filth; a traumatized young girl wandered the hallways unattended; people with schizophrenia had no medication. Weissbecker, global mental health and psychosocial advisor for the International Medical Corps, brought the tragedy to potential donors, imploring them to fund better mental health services.

Her plea fell on deaf ears.

“They thought, ‘South Sudan is not ready for mental health. The country has bigger problems,’” she recalls with frustration.

Mental health disorders affect one in four people around the world and even more in low-and-middle- income countries riven by strife. Still, the problem is often overlooked in light of other pressing development priorities.

It wasn’t until civil war broke out in South Sudan that mental health funding poured in, as the world’s attention turned to children with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatized civilians.

For many, the logic is inescapable. In the hierarchy of needs, lifting people out of poverty and ensuring they are fed comes before mental health treatment. But this thinking crumbles when you look at the massive ripple effect of untreated mental health disorders.

Studies show a relationship between mental health conditions and unhealthy lifestyles, leading to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, as well as drug and alcohol abuse. Healthcare systems in developing or crisis-plagued regions cannot handle the strain. Low-income countries average one psychiatrist for every two million people and spend less than 1 per cent of their health budgets on mental health.

Typically, when developing countries do invest in mental health, the money doesn’t go to outreach and prevention but to mental hospitals. Institutions are much more disruptive to patient’s lives, and carry a greater stigma in areas where education and awareness are lacking.

Donors and international organizations are often no better, explains Weissbecker. “When conflict breaks out, that’s when people start paying attention.”

The international community has made tremendous strides delivering medicines, containing outbreaks and fighting disease around the world. Now it must do the same for mental health.

We need to do more. We need to fund and train more psychiatrists and doctors, build community-based mental health services, and help break the cultural stigma associated with treatment. These are the types of solutions that should be talking points at the recent World Health Organization annual meeting, in time for World Mental Health Day on October 10.

In Canada, we’re a long way from achieving our goals but we’ve started to recognize the social and economic benefits of investing in mental health. It’s time we applied the same standards around the world. And we don’t have to wait for the trauma of conflict.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories at we.org.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-mental-health-treatment-a-human-right/feed0South SudancraigkielburgerGlobal Voices: X Prizes changing liveshttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-x-prizes-changing-lives
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-x-prizes-changing-lives#respondFri, 29 Sep 2017 19:59:29 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765432In engineering labs, home garages and makeshift workshops around the world, innovators drew up plans, designed and tinkered in a race to get to space.

Teams of former NASA engineers competed with hobbyists, university students, and a group of of 1,000 Toronto volunteers for the most democratic innovation prize ever.

The result was SpaceShipOne, a rocket that made major leaps toward commercial space travel and became the first ever X Prize winner.

The X Prize is like the American Idol of world-changing technology, open to anyone with the talent and the drive to compete.

Since the first award was granted for space travel, X Prizes have crowdsourced ideas to solve major problems, tackling everything from oil spill cleanup to technology driven solutions to global learning.

The latest X Prize winners created a real-life version of Star Trek’s tricorder.

The self-funded team of friends and siblings from Pennsylvania beat more than 300 others, including teams with corporate and government funding, and revolutionized health care in developing communities with a diagnostic tool that will allow patients to self-diagnose 34 conditions.

And because teams can come from anywhere, bringing with them diverse backgrounds and skill sets, the next world-changing solution might come from anyone.

Even a bee-keeper.

“My goal is to talk to my bees,” says Marc-André Roberge, co-founder of Nectar and an entrant in the IBM Watson A.I. X Prize, to be announced in 2020.

Nectar uses artificial intelligence technology to eavesdrop on bees, a system designed to monitor hive behaviour in the face of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious disappearance of bees that threatens the world food supply.

“The X Prize is like the American Idol of world changing technology, open to anyone with the talent and the drive to compete.”

For Roberge, bee-keeping was a hobby — until he saw a global problem he could solve with his design and tech background.

Roberge calls the X Prize a “force for good.” Between the prize money, mentorship and networking opportunities, Roberge sees the competitive environment as an ecosystem breeding solutions to pressing problems.

“It takes a village to build something that will have a good impact on the world,” he says.

Prizes are not always the right solution, says Luciano Kay, a Research Fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Some issues — like new drug treatments — are so complex and require so much investment and sustained research, it’s unreasonable to expect individuals to match the efforts of governments.

Still, the wild success of the first X Prize has led to a renaissance in what we’re calling crowdsourced innovation, which dates back to the 1700s when the British government offered a prize to improve ocean navigation.

Today, everyone from NASA to Netflix are calling on the public to spur the hunt for alien life and help strangers pick the right movie.

Recent research suggests this is more than a publicity stunt. Harvard University looked at the Royal Agricultural Society of England and concluded that prizes handed out between 1839 and 1939 led to not only more patents, but improved inventions as well.

The X Prize changes what people believe is possible. And that’s the first step toward innovation.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-x-prizes-changing-lives/feed0HoneybeescraigkielburgerGlobal Voices: Help break stereotypes by setting an examplehttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-help-break-stereotypes-by-setting-an-example
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-help-break-stereotypes-by-setting-an-example#respondTue, 26 Sep 2017 14:59:45 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765369The day after the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Clarence Pitterson stood in front of his students at Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School in Toronto’s west end, overcome with excitement as he talked about America’s first black president.

One of the few black teachers at the school, Pitterson’s social studies class often started with conversations about racially charged issues in the news, from police shootings to protests against discrimination.

Those discussions brought the experiences of students of colour into the classroom, giving them much-needed space to share their world view. But he says his white students gained just as much.

“Students don’t see enough people of colour in positions of authority,” says Pitterson, who is now vice-principal. “Conversations about race, talking about what’s happening in society, they’re eye-opening for my white students, giving them a different perspective.”

Teachers don’t have to be a visible minority to facilitate that discussion — but with growing levels of racism and record numbers of hate crimes across the country, Pitterson acts as a role model for white students, who need the opportunity to reach across the racial divide to interact with more caring and capable people of colour in positions of respect and authority.

That opportunity is being lost, explains equity consultant Tana Turner.

“We like to compare ourselves to the United States and think we’re doing much better, but when you look at the data, we’re no further ahead with respect to representing the student population,” Turner says.

Canada may be more diverse than ever, but we tend to socialize within our backgrounds [Getty Images]

In Ontario, for example, just 13 per cent of teachers are visible minorities while more than one-quarter of students are; the diversity gap between teachers and students is similarly wide in all provinces.

Exacerbating the problem is a broader social trend.

Canada may be more diverse than ever, but we tend to socialize within our backgrounds, “self-segregating based on race, class or culture,” explains Turner. The result is that most young white people won’t see societal diversity among their parents’ friends or on their social media feeds.

This puts added pressure on the school system to advance diversity — to ensure that when students leave school and enter the workforce, their perspectives of people of colour are not defined by stereotypes, but by real people they’ve encountered.

Students of colour perform better academically and benefit socially when they have teachers of the same race.

Decades of research prove that students of colour perform better academically and benefit socially when they have teachers of the same race. And school boards across Canada are actively recruiting more visible minorities while universities work to diversify enrolment.

White students stand to benefit just as much. Stereotypes crumble next to real people and role models.

Pitterson says parents shouldn’t wait until there are more people of colour standing in front of the classroom; they should play a more active part in finding role models throughout the community.

Sports coaches, tutors and music teachers offer opportunities for mentorship, while community service groups and youth organizations bring people together across cultures and faith groups.

“If it’s not happening in school, we have to actively seek it out,” says Pitterson. “Just one experience, one personal connection with someone different than you can burst the bubble of stereotypes. I’ve seen it.”

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-help-break-stereotypes-by-setting-an-example/feed0Stereotypes crumble next to real people and role modelscraigkielburgerCanada may be more diverse than ever, but we tend to socialize within our backgroundsGlobal Voices: An ode to the shipping containerhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-an-ode-to-the-shipping-container
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-an-ode-to-the-shipping-container#respondTue, 19 Sep 2017 06:46:53 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765281While visiting Ghana a few years ago, some unusual kiosks caught the eye of Kevin Lee. Local vendors had cut windows and doors into abandoned shipping containers, and turned them into storefronts.

“Clothiers, butchers, hairdressers — each day families went into the container they rented to ply their trade,” recalls Lee, executive director of Scadding Court Community Centre in Toronto.

Lee returned home to the huge, deserted sidewalks surrounding his downtown community centre and had an epiphany. He called up Storstac, a company that up-cycles shipping containers, and had two retrofitted containers plonked down outside the centre on Dundas Street. He invited neighbourhood entrepreneurs — who couldn’t afford the astronomical cost for a brick-and-mortar Toronto storefront — to set up shop in the containers for less than $25 a day.

Seven years and 15 containers later, Scadding Court’s Market 707 is home to 23 businesses, many owned by new Canadians and refugees, in a thriving neighbourhood hub.

Market 707 is a creative new lease on life for these ubiquitous giants that would otherwise have gone to waste.

There are more than 17 million shipping containers around the world, bringing us avocados from Mexico and smartphones from China. Unfortunately, these prodigal crates rarely return home. It’s cheaper for manufacturers to build new containers for their goods than to send back old ones. Megatonnes of metal wind up rusting in dockyards. Like the vendors of Ghana, entrepreneurs are using shipping containers like huge Lego blocks — they can become anything.

Like the vendors of Ghana, entrepreneurs are using shipping containers like huge Lego blocks — they can become anything.

After Hurricane Harvey ravaged Houston, Texas, one local farmer’s crop withstood the blow. His storm-resistant hydroponic farm-in-a-box, made by Boston-based Freight Farms, provided fresh veggies for area residents.

Container homes have been a fad for years now, and not just for eccentric hipsters. Community organizations like Vancouver’s Atira Women’s Resource Society have found them a less-expensive option for social housing for marginalized and abused women.

Clinic in a Can, in Wichita, Kansas, turns old containers into mobile doctors’ offices, medical labs, and even fully equipped surgical units. The pods can be quickly deployed to natural disaster zones. Stick a bunch together and you have an instant hospital.

Now, aspiring container entrepreneurs beware: it’s not as easy as buying one and moving in.

Many containers have been treated with lead paint or harmful chemicals and must be cleaned. You’ll need doors, windows, insulation, and special equipment for certain uses. Up-cycling a container for stores, like in Market 707, can cost $20,000 to $30,000, says Storstac founder Anthony Ruggiero.

But it’s worth the investment.

Charging incredibly low rent, the Market 707 containers still paid for themselves in just three years, Lee tells us. And they’re creating economic opportunity in the community while generating revenue that funds Scadding Court’s recreation and after-school programs.

Mountains of old, rusted shipping containers are a monument to our insatiable desire for consumer goods and foods from abroad. Reincarnation means these metal boxes don’t go to waste.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-an-ode-to-the-shipping-container/feed0Market 707craigkielburgerGlobal Voices: Volunteering a way to ease worried students’ mindshttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-volunteering-a-way-to-ease-worried-students-minds
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-volunteering-a-way-to-ease-worried-students-minds#commentsTue, 12 Sep 2017 06:34:23 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765201Across the country, students are starting high school and facing life’s biggest questions: Where’s my locker? Do I know anyone in homeroom? What is that grey stuff on my cafeteria tray?

And they’re getting very stressed out.

With unfamiliar environments, heavier workloads and social challenges, the transition from elementary school to high school is rough. When 800 new high schoolers rated their feelings of anxiety on a scale of one to 10, one-quarter said seven or more — indicating serious stress. Disturbingly, these anxiety-ridden youth were the most likely to cut classes, start smoking, or even engage in self-harm, according to McGill University researcher Dr. Nancy Heath, who studied the students for three years.

Forget fidget spinners. There’s a better cure for high school worry: volunteering.

Parents are already struggling with over-scheduled kids, but the mental health benefits of this particular after-school activity are well established — and worth the effort.

“There’s clear evidence that doing something for others can help people manage stress,” says Heath.

The biggest benefit is connecting with new people. High school is a social minefield. In Grade 9, elementary school cliques break up. Teens struggling to find new friends can feel isolated and rejected. They need a backup social scene outside the classroom, Heath suggests. “Volunteering and getting involved gives a sense of community and belonging,” she says.

Team sports and some hobbies are social, but they can’t match the other benefits of volunteering.

Young volunteers connect with like-minded mentors, who are role models for not just a skill, but also for altruistic behaviour.

Serving food in a soup kitchen or chatting with folks in a seniors’ home forces a teen to focus on the needs of others.

Serving food in a soup kitchen or chatting with folks in a seniors’ home forces a teen to focus on the needs of others, instead of fretting over their own worries. It broadens their outlook beyond themselves, and promotes feelings of gratitude — which science has shown is good for your health.

Volunteering can help students unwind as they focus on the immediate needs of others, instead of their own anxieties, helping them build both perspective and empathy, a trait that doctors say is powerful de-stressor.

Confidence takes a real beating in Grade 9, as youth find themselves back at the bottom of the social ladder. Good self-esteem is the best defence for surviving the transition, says Greg Lubimiv, executive director of the Phoenix Centre, a youth counselling agency in Ontario’s Renfrew County.

We’ve found that, among youth who volunteer through our service programs, 61 per cent of report feeling increased self-esteem. They’re 1.3 times more likely to have a strong sense of self than their peers, and are more comfortable adapting to change, according to an independent study by research firm Mission Measurement.

Stress doesn’t have to be entirely bad, Heath notes. It can be an opportunity to overcome challenges which builds resiliency. Volunteering helps teens cope, build leadership skills and, of course, start a lifelong habit of giving back.

This fall, encourage the new high school student in your house to find a cause they’re passionate about and get involved. It won’t help them find their locker, but it will ease the stress.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-volunteering-a-way-to-ease-worried-students-minds/feed1Students volunteeringcraigkielburgerGlobal Voices: Indigenous men fight violence against womenhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-indigenous-men-fight-violence-against-women
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-indigenous-men-fight-violence-against-women#respondTue, 05 Sep 2017 06:00:33 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=765117As the sun crested over the forest just outside of Fraser Lake in northern British Columbia, Raven Lacerte took out her knife.

Her father had just taken down a moose. Before he fired the shot, the two were deep in conversation and Lacerte’s thoughts lingered on their painful topic: Violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls.

While she field-dressed the animal, prepping the meat for a feast in her hometown of Victoria, her mind raced.

Her father had just attended a conference for Indigenous leaders on the crisis with 300 participants — only four of them were men.

“For a long time, it’s been only women in this conversation,” Lacerte says. “This let’s men off the hook.”

She decided to help hold men accountable. Getting a moose is a big honour, the 22-year-old member of the Carrier First Nations tells us, and provided an opportunity to appeal to men as warriors.

Lacerte and her sister tanned the moose hide and cut it into squares, which men now wear to signify they’re taking a stand against violence.

“We’re creating a space for men to say, ‘This is not OK.’ ”

Lorelei Williams, left, and Michelle Pineault at a Coalition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls news conference on April 3, 2017. [The Canadian Press]

Lacerte has since handed out over 600,000 patches across Canada as part of the Moose Hide Campaign, distributing each for free with a handwritten note about being a strong warrior for good.

The patch is a public symbol meant to start conversation. The campaign itself is much more, with regular healing circles, marches on provincial legislatures and online resources for women who have experienced violence and men who want to end it.

When Lacerte started the campaign in 2011, there were growing calls from Indigenous leaders for a government inquest. Now, there are growing calls for its reset.

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is nearly halfway into its two-year mandate, and is plagued by resignations, accused of poor communication and general inertia in the face of the mounting crisis.

The one thing that everyone can agree on is that a lot of work remains. Grassroots responses like the Moose Hide Campaign are balms to the wound at the heart of the inquiry.

Desperate to solve open cases in the Winnipeg region, Drag the Red started in 2014 with volunteers walking along the Red River. Hundreds of volunteers work together each summer to search for evidence of missing Indigenous women that might bring closure to families.

“We need to work one hand in the soil, one hand in the stars,” she says of the bottom-up and top-down approaches needed.

Nigeria’s undersized energy grid barely provides enough electricity for quarter of the nation’s 190 million citizens. Even then, it’s often just a few hours of power a day. Most Nigerians rely on small, gas-powered generators in homes and small businesses. Apart from environmental and health damage, fuel is an unwelcome cost in a country where the average yearly income is just US$3,596.

Ademola Adesina saw his country’s power problem as an opportunity.

Using a pay-as-you-go leasing model, Adesina’s start-up Rensource replaces gas generators with hybrid solar-battery systems. Zero emissions, and the monthly fee is less than the upkeep of a generator. Since launching this past February, Rensource has already installed 500 solar systems. The company plans to replace 500,000 gas generators with renewable energy over five years.

With African nations undergoing a business renaissance, Adesina represents the continent’s rising entrepreneurial class. He’s among those finding a profitable niche by taking on social and environmental challenges.

“It’s all that I see in Nigeria. The most viable and successful businesses target some sort of (social or environmental) impact,” says Adesina.

‘The most viable and successful businesses target some sort of (social or environmental) impact.’

These businesses aren’t learning about corporate social responsibility after they launch. “They’re doing it from the start because it makes the most business sense,” adds Eliot Pence, a Washington-based international investment advisor and founder of the Africa Expert Network, a collective of consultants for global companies wanting to do business in Africa.

Adesina and Pence both point to another prime example of Africa’s entrepreneurship working for social impact — Andela. This three-year-old firm has already built an international reputation for training young Nigerians, Kenyans and Ugandans in software development, then connecting participants with tech companies around the world. The business is creating job opportunities — especially for those from low-income backgrounds — and raising local wages while stemming the brain drain of skilled professionals fleeing the continent.

Mahmud Johnson founded a zero-waste palm fruit processing facility that uses every part of the palm plant to produce consumer goods, from cakes to skin care products. A valuable resource in his home country, Liberia, the business has increased incomes for small-scale palm farmers by 200 per cent.

African entrepreneurs have found their niche solving social problems for considerable profit.

Jennifer Shigoli, from Tanzania, won recognition for Elea, a company producing affordable and reusable sanitary pads. One in ten girls in sub-Saharan Africa skip school during their periods because they cannot afford expensive disposable pads.

In Morocco, award winner Abdeladim Moumen invented a “molecular diagnostic kit” that allows rural clinics to quickly and inexpensively spot health issues like breast cancer and Hepatitis C. His new company Moldiag began producing kits this year, to sell across Africa.

African entrepreneurs have found their niche solving social problems for considerable profit, and to the benefit of their communities and their countries. This is the future of business. Entrepreneurs around in Canada — and around the world — should take note, or risk being left behind.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

A growing number of young people are cobbling together contract work, side jobs and short-term employment as university degrees no longer guarantee jobs. When young people do find work, more than a quarter are underemployed.

A still-slumping economy has put mounting pressure in the job market. Despite this trend, the pressing search for young people isn’t just for a paycheque, but for meaning. One study found that more than half of millennials would take a pay cut for a job that aligns with their personal values.

When Katherine Laliberte graduated from law school, she achieved what many in her program considered “the be-all and end-all,” she says: articling at a major firm in litigation and corporate law.

After years of expensive tuition and countless hours in the library, the 30-year-old felt external pressures from her peers to seek big returns on her big investment. But she wasn’t fighting for justice or advancing causes she cared about.

Many young people in search of a job after graduating want to earn more than just a paycheque; they want one with meaning [Getty Images]

She quit and started a notary business to help clients navigate the legal system, cornering the market in Toronto’s west end, while looking for a way to give back. That quickly led to pro bono work helping transgender people change their names and get official documents to reflect their personal identity.

Helping her first trans client “live the way she wants to (…) was the most rewarding part,” recalls Laliberte. “I saw how appreciated it was, even though it was a tiny gesture.”

From there, paying and non-paying clients started streaming in as her business — and her impact — continued to thrive. She has plans to expand through subcontractors to offer pro bono services for other clients in need.

Laliberte is not alone in this growing trend.

A structural engineer from Stouffville, Ont., 39-year-old Luke Anderson left his big firm behind after a mountain biking accident confined the athlete to an assisted mobility device. He uses his engineering skills to help create a barrier-free world with the StopGap Foundation, a non-profit that installs ramps to expand accessibility in the Toronto area.

Just a generation ago, most workers counted down the hours to clock out of a job with little personal satisfaction.

At 25, Shannon Lee Simmons took a break from the rat race as an investment manager to start the Barter Babes Project, skills-sharing her financial expertise with young entrepreneurial women. Since then, she’s launched her own financial planning practice, gearing her services to young people and women.

Law school, an engineering degree and a career in financial services still hold allure for many. But as Canada produces more professionals than ever — with fewer jobs to go round — entrepreneurs are carving their own path, finding niche jobs that solve social problems.

Just a generation ago, most workers counted down the hours to clock out of a job with little personal satisfaction. Now resourceful young people are putting their skills towards their passion, not just a paycheque.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

While agents from U.S. Fish and Wildlife lured a smuggler to a storage facility in New York’s Bronx neighbourhood with the promise of $400,000 worth of illegal rhino horns as part of a sting operation, Sheldon Jordan readied his team to raid the man’s warehouse in Canada.

The smuggling ring’s Richmond, B.C., headquarters was posing as an antique auction house, where police found piles of illegal ivory, rhino horns and coral. Animal parts were stored next to 50,000 tablets of ecstasy, bags of marijuana and cocaine.

Wildlife trafficking is a global phenomenon. Most people think of shark fins and elephant tusks on black markets in East Asia, but Jordan, director general of wildlife enforcement at Environment Canada, says it’s much closer to home. He’s is in charge of rooting it out across the country.

Jordan recovered a laptop during the sting that mapped out an illegal network of suppliers and buyers stretching across borders, proof of Canada’s connection to a global animal trafficking market that’s also tied to guns and drugs.

Black market prices have skyrocketed to meet growing demand in recent years, leading to a surge in trafficking of everything from exotic timber to the scaly pangolin, the world’s most poached animal. Conservative estimates value the industry at US$91 billion annually.

With lax international regulation and the promise of huge profits, criminal networks have been quick to capitalize.

A pangolin is released into the wild by Natural Resources Conservation Agency [The Associated Press]

“Animals and plants are just another low-risk, high-reward commodity for transnational organized crime” explains kelvin Alie, executive vice president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

While the world focuses on the usual suspects in Africa and Asia, Canada has quietly become both a destination and a source country. Turtles, lizards and birds are smuggled here for collectors. Polar bear hides and narwhal tusks, prized as trophies, and bear gall bladders and wild ginseng valued for medicinal purposes, are illegally exported.

Often seen as victimless, wildlife crime struggles to capture the attention it deserves.

Beyond the destruction of ecosystems and devastation of animal populations, it can spark violence and unrest, creating the conditions for poverty, hunger and draught, leading to human casualties, explains Jordan.

Media — and the U.S. State Department — tend to pay attention to environmental crime only when it’s connected to terrorism. The Lord’s Resistance Army in the Congo trades ivory for arms and al-Shabbab’s insurgency in Somalia is financed partly by illegal coal mining.

Media — and the U.S. State Department — tend to pay attention to environmental crime only when it’s connected to terrorism.

Alie says the connection to terrorism is overblown. Instead, governments should focus on criminals and corruption to dismantle the trading networks that breed violent crime.

That is exactly what Environment Canada is doing with a pilot project launched last year to crack down on the polar bear trade.

Using microchips to track animals, enforcement officers follow the supply chain to ensure polar bears are hunted and purchased legally. Jordan hopes to share this tactic and technology with other nations to help safeguard their animal populations.

“This is a problem that grew very quickly, like a grass fire,” says Jordan.

He says Canadians need to understand that wildlife trafficking isn’t confined to faraway jungles. It’s big business for major criminal networks and it’s happening right here in Canada.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-canada-becoming-a-wildlife-trafficking-zone/feed0polar bearcraigkielburgerIndonesia PangolinsGlobal Voices: Autism in girls is often under the radarhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-autism-in-girls-is-often-under-the-radar
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-autism-in-girls-is-often-under-the-radar#respondTue, 01 Aug 2017 06:11:48 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=764873When it comes to autism, early intervention is best.

“We get the families started as early as possible,” says founding director Dr. Catherine Lord. There’s one hitch in this plan, she adds: “It’s a rare day when there’s a girl.”

For decades, medical consensus presumed autism as a predominantly male condition, a result of an “extreme male brain.” Studies were cited that it affects boys at a rate four times higher than girls. That thinking is starting to change.

New research has uncovered a blind spot for women and girls on the spectrum, a gender bias that leaves them undiagnosed.

A complex neurobiological condition, autism is a spectrum of characteristics that are different in every individual. To complicate matters, there are no brain scans or blood tests to diagnose autism.

In the absence of physical tests, doctors rely on behavioural assessments that come with their own biases. Right from the outset, doctors focused on boys because they tended to exhibit the most obvious signs of atypical behaviour, says Gina Rippon, a leading neuroscientist and professor of cognitive neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre in the U.K.

This included a disinterest in socializing.

New research has uncovered a blind spot for women and girls on the spectrum, a gender bias that leaves them undiagnosed.

Young boys are stereotypically rowdy and sociable. So when boys obsess with maps or avoid group play in favour of time alone, society recognizes that behaviour as neurologically atypical, a symptom of their need to categorize and find routine. When girls fixate on dolls or books, when they’re obsessively neat or shy and quiet, that’s seen as normal — deferential female behaviour.

Early focus on so-called boys’ behaviours set the parameters for what doctors came to think of as autism. While girls and boys on the extreme end of the spectrum share behavioural patterns and are diagnosed in roughly equal numbers, girls on the less extreme end, whose autism manifests differently than boys, have slipped under the radar.

“It’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Rippon.

It’s not uncommon for parents to be told their daughters can’t be on the spectrum, according to Beth Finkelstein, executive director of Felicity House, an autism support group for women. Girls are often misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); doctors who still think of autism as a disproportionally male condition often look for other explanations. As a result, girls may miss out on early interventions.

A correct diagnosis brings with it an ecosystem of support, from educational accommodations to social services. For many, there is also a sense of community. Rippon, Finkelstein and Lord have each met women diagnosed later in life who found relief in the knowledge.

“Knowing that other people experience the world in a similar way is incredibly helpful,” says Lord.

As new research — and vocal parents — expand how we think about autism in girls, doctors are creating new services to meet their needs, from amending diagnostic tools to new guidebooks that help navigate puberty and social relationships.

With more understanding and attention, the lost girls on the autism spectrum will not be lost for long.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

The world is aware of the problem. What it lacks is solutions and the consensus to act on them. That’s where Canada comes in. With little media fanfare, the World Refugee Council held its first meeting last week in Geneva. Created by a group of Canadians and chaired by one of the country’s political heavyweights, former cabinet minister and statesman Lloyd Axworthy, the group is on the hunt for innovative solutions to the global refugee crisis.

Though inspired by a United Nations initiative, Canada is running the show outside of the international body.

“There’s only so much that can be achieved within the UN system, and there’s a real appetite for innovative thinking,” says Carleton University professor James Milner, research director for the Council.

“There’s only so much that can be achieved within the UN system, and there’s a real appetite for innovative thinking.”

Among many ideas, the team will examine new ways to apply technology and engage the private sector to support refugees — like the Elevate Initiative. This program, supported by Canadian businessman Frank Giustra’s Radcliffe Foundation, helps Syrian refugee women in Jordan become entrepreneurs. Women receive business training, and are supplied with basic consumer goods to sell at an affordable price in their communities. Or Radcliffe’s Ascend Initiative, which pulls together such corporate giants as Coca-Cola and Microsoft to take care of needs like housing and social programs for refugees in Greece, thus taking financial pressure off the struggling Greek government.

Programs like these help refugees become self-sufficient, while also making an economic contribution in their adopted homes. In this case, refugees are no longer seen as a burden, but a benefit, explains Council member Jessie Thomson, director of CARE Canada’s Humanitarian Assistance and Emergency Team.

“We have to think about engaging refugees themselves in their own well-being,” adds Paul Heinbecker, former Canadian ambassador to the UN and deputy chair of the Council.

In typical Canadian fashion, diversity aids creativity. The 23-member Council considered gender balance (with 11 women and 12 men), and members from the global north and south. Four Council members have been refugees themselves. Private-sector representatives like Per Heggenes, chief executive of the IKEA Foundation, bring business insight to the table. There’s even a youth representative: Tunisian blogger and activist Aya Chebbi.

Those differing perspectives will create balance as the Council tackles the most pressing issue: the inequality faced by developing nations who bear most of the burden of caring for refugees. While Canada, the U.S. and European countries face tens of thousands of refugee arrivals, countries such as Jordan and Uganda are dealing with millions. Eighty-six per cent of refugees are sheltered by developing countries.

Over the next year, the Council will travel around the world, meeting political and business leaders as well as refugees, with a report set to be released in 2018. Then the Council will use the political clout and international respect of its ‘heavy hitters’ like Axworthy, Heinbecker, and former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete to build global consensus for its solutions.

We’re proud to see Canadians step up and do what we do best: bring people together to solve the world’s greatest challenges.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-innovative-solutions-to-global-refugee-crisis/feed0Somali refugeescraigkielburgerRefugees15 snacks you might be surprised to know are veganhttp://o.canada.com/life/food/15-snacks-you-might-be-surprised-to-know-are-vegan
http://o.canada.com/life/food/15-snacks-you-might-be-surprised-to-know-are-vegan#respondWed, 19 Jul 2017 21:31:49 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=764771Going vegetarian or vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up your favourite guilty-pleasure snacks. While fresh fruits and veggies can go a long way in filling you up, sometimes a craving calls for a little naughty indulgence.

In February, three dairy-free ice creams from Ben & Jerry’s hit Canadian shelves. Using an almond milk base, the company started rolling out the flavours Chocolate Fudge Brownie (chocolate with fudge brownies from Greyston Bakery), P.B. & Cookies (vanilla with chocolate sandwich cookies and crunchy peanut butter swirls) and Coffee Caramel Fudge (coffee with fudge chunks and caramel swirls).

But man cannot live on ice cream alone.

According to animal-rights organization PETA, the 15 most popular vegan snacks include Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili tortilla chips, Fritos original and Bar-B-Q flavoured corn chips, Kettle Brand Maple Bacon potato chips and Sour Patch Kids. Here are 15 other snacks you might be surprised to know are vegan:

Alongside embassies, trade missions and aid, some countries are turning to food through culinary diplomacy.

Stories of history, conflict, colonization and migration are written in food.

“Our daily realities are contained in it,” explains Arlene Stein, director of Terroir, an annual symposium for policy makers, business leaders and food producers. “So it only makes sense to use food to bring people together to break down barriers.”

When it comes to eating and politics, we immediately think of state dinners. Fewer recognize the grassroots efforts in kitchens of street vendors and local producers.

During a spike in violence between Israelis and Palestinians in 2015, Kobi Tzafrir, owner of Hummus Bar in Tel Aviv, offered a 50 per cent discount to Jews and Arabs who dined together.

Hummus Bar in Tel Aviv gave a discount to Jews and Arabs who dined together.[The Associated Press]

Customers get a side of politics with their North Korean doenjang jjigae, a traditional stew, at Conflict Kitchen, the Pittsburgh food stall that serves dishes from countries the United States is in conflict with in order to build understanding.

When the U.S. lifted the half-century long embargo on Cuba, New Yorkers got a head start on the cultural exchange as Cuban chefs took part in the Harlem/Havana food festival.

The governments of Taiwan and Thailand launched massive efforts to increase cultural awareness through food. Taiwan’s $30 million dim sum diplomacy saw chefs travelling the world to help differentiate Taiwanese culture from China’s, while the Global Thai program sponsored Thai restaurant openings worldwide, with each operating as an unofficial cultural embassy.

This is not to say that food is a cure-all for conflict. Greeks and Turks have fought over coffee, Irish Protestants and Catholics over whiskey, and everyone in the Middle East claims ownership over hummus. Still, some experts see great potential in culinary diplomacy as a bridge between divided nations.

Still, some experts see great potential in culinary diplomacy as a bridge between divided nations.

Countries tend not to go to war with trading partners, and Stein sees the potential of shared tourism based on rich culinary traditions as a similar step toward conflict resolution.

There’s something all Canadians can do: learn our own food history, explains Guelph University Food Laureate Anita Stewart. That means understanding the state of food security and meeting producers.

Every dish has a story, says Stewart.

Take poutine. Today, it’s up there with maple syrup and beavertails as a Canadian staple. But just like the fries, cheese curds and gravy, there are layers to poutine’s history.

Invented in the 1950s, the dish first carried a stigma for its supposed lack of sophistication. Some Quebecers felt this stereotype was wielded by English Canadians to undermine the culture itself. Now featured on plates from San Francisco to Tokyo, marketed as Canadian, the dish has sparked a conversation about the relationship between French and English Canadians.

Whatever is on the menu, cultures and recipes come together to tell stories on our plates while they bring us together around the dinner table.

Food is politics.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

Hands up if your mom sent you outside to play while she watched her “stories” on weekday afternoons.

Once upon a time, daytime soap operas provided a daily dose of escapist entertainment for stay-at-home moms while the kids were at school or dangling, unsupervised, off the monkey bars at the neighbourhood playground. Soaps were appointment viewing. They had to be — VCRs didn’t come into play until the mid-1970s.

How times have changed.

Since the start of the millennium, DVRs and streaming video services like Netflix and Crave TV have given us freedom to watch our favourite shows wherever and whenever it’s convenient, although the same technology that keeps us plugged in 24/7 makes finding a convenient time increasingly difficult.

Still, a Netflix survey of more than 300 Canadian moms with children nine years old and younger, conducted June 9-14, found that 90 per cent of respondents are still carving out a bit of “me time” for solo TV viewing, and they have more choices than ever before — unless they want to watch a daytime soap.

Anthony Geary as Luke Spencer, left, and Genie Francis as Laura Spencer on General Hospital. [ABC]

Only four long-running network serials are still clinging to life on network TV — General Hospital (on ABC since 1963), Days of Our Lives (on NBC since 1965), The Young and the Restless (on CBS since 1973), and The Bold and the Beautiful (on CBS since 1987).

Some folks blame O.J. Simpson. His eight-month murder trial pre-empted so much daytime TV in 1995 that some viewers never came back. But then, Internet use began skyrocketing at about the same time. And traditional daytime viewers have also become something of a rarity. Only 18 per cent of families with children had a stay-at-home parent in 2015, according to Statistics Canada. That’s down from 53 per cent in 1976, when All My Children, Another World, Ryan’s Hope, As the World Turns, The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, One Life to Live and Guiding Light were thriving daytime staples.

Back then, just 32 per cent of Canadian women with a child aged six or under had paid employment outside the home, compared to 69.5 per cent in 2015. Participation in the workforce for women with kids aged six to 11 was 78 per cent in 2015, up from 45 per cent in 1976. And then there’s the second shift. More men are taking on the role of stay-at-home parent, and they’re stepping up in greater numbers to handle cooking and cleaning chores. But, again according to Stats Canada, the percentage of women who also perform household work has remained the same for the past 30 years — 93 per cent.

Orange Is The New Black is streaming Season 5 on Netflix [Netflix]

Small wonder that moms Netflix surveyed said they need time alone to decompress (52 per cent), enjoy some peace and quiet away from the kids (49 per cent), or just get some rest (46 per cent). While the majority (73 per cent), say solo viewing gives them a break from the daily grind, or helps relieve stress (54 per cent), about a third of moms say it makes them feel more connected to current pop culture, and to what their friends and co-workers are talking about around the water cooler. Most (84 per cent), say moms shouldn’t feel guilty about “sneaking in” a bit of TV “me time,” but the survey isn’t clear on whether that sneakiness actually does make them feel as guilty as the other 16 per cent.

An equal number (59 per cent), said they squeeze in TV “me time” while they’re doing laundry or lying in bed, presumably after the kids are asleep, while 48 per cent watch while they’re cooking. And a surprising number (35 per cent), spend quality time streaming TV in the bathroom, often while pretending they’re doing their hair or makeup.

So what are they watching in there? Mainly primetime soaps and serials — new episodes of edgier shows such as Orange is the New Black, The Walking Dead (26 and 23 per cent, respectively), and Pretty Little Liars (15 per cent); nostalgic fare like Gilmore Girls (21 per cent), Friends (18 per cent), and Fuller House (15 per cent), and long-running network dramas Grey’s Anatomy (26 per cent), and Once Upon a Time (18 per cent).

Hopefully, they’re also binge-watching House of Cards, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Glow (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling), with their significant others like everyone else — and doing it on the couch, not on the throne.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/me-time-for-moms-often-involves-netflix-says-survey/feed0Watching TVpostmedianews1ANTHONY GEARY, GENIE FRANCISOrange Is The New Black is streaming Season 5 on NetflixGlobal Voices: Why Canada should do business with Africahttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-why-canada-should-do-business-with-africa
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-why-canada-should-do-business-with-africa#respondTue, 11 Jul 2017 06:43:45 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=764682Nola Kianza is a man on a mission. The founder and CEO of the Canadian Council on Africa is travelling across Canada, meeting politicians and fellow businessmen to deliver a message:

“Africa is not just about aid. Africa is the new frontier in business.”

Kianza wants to see Canada significantly grow its trade relationships with African countries. He says the plan would open new markets for Canadian companies, while creating prosperity and reducing poverty in Africa.

Canada’s trading relationships are “skewed,” says Phil Rourke, executive director of Carleton University’s Centre for Trade Policy and Law, and an advocate for increased trade with Africa. The U.S. accounts for 80 per cent of Canadian trade, with Europe at 15 per cent. Apart from a growing interest in China, Canada has invested little in trade relations with the rest of the world — least of all in Africa. With the current U.S. administration potentially threatening NATFA, Canada needs to re-examine that balance.

In the six years since Kenya’s M-Pesa brought banking-by-phone to Africa, the service has grown from a novelty to a bona fide payment network. [Bloomberg]

Canada already exports wheat to countries like Nigeria and Ghana. We import rubber and some consumer goods, including South African biltong (a type of dried meat), and Kenya’s Tusker beer. But there are bigger opportunities beyond natural resources and lager in Africa’s emerging tech industry, Rourke says.

Canadian businesses could take a cue from Facebook entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg, who is touring countries like Nigeria seeking e-commerce start-ups to support and partner with.

A Canadian software company could exploit time differences by setting up a branch office in Ethiopia. At 5 p.m. in the capital Addis Ababa, a game developer hands off the latest project to her colleague in Montreal, where it’s only 10 a.m. The company achieves a productive double-length work day, creates economy-boosting tech jobs in Ethiopia, and helps stem the brain drain afflicting many African countries.

A resident uses a Nokia Asha mobile phone on a street in Nairobi [Bloomberg]

Africa has a combined continental GDP in excess of $3 trillion. It’s a market Canada can no longer afford to overlook, Kianza argues. More than an economic strategy, African trade can also support Canada’s international development efforts.

In the U.S., the African Growth and Opportunity Act gives sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to the U.S. market. In exchange, these countries implement higher standards in workers’ rights and labour conditions. The agreement helped Lesotho build a clothing export industry, creating 40,000 jobs in the country with good working conditions. Many of those jobs went to women, increasing economic opportunities and equality.

Trade is a key component of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the 15-year plan to fight global poverty. At a 2015 conference, UN officials declared, “trade can also help to promote productive employment and decent work, women’s empowerment and food security, as well as a reduction in inequality.”

Business and economic empowerment are among the most powerful tools we have to combat social problems.

In the 21st Century, trade can be the new aid.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of the WE movement, which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-why-canada-should-do-business-with-africa/feed0A Kenyan coffee farmer pours ripe coffee berries into a sackcraigkielburgerIn the six years since Kenya's M-Pesa brought banking-by-phone to Africa, the service has grown from a novelty to a bona fide payment network. A resident uses a Nokia Asha mobile phone on a street in NairobiGlobal Voices: Toronto school builds bridge to reconciliationhttp://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-toronto-school-builds-bridge-to-reconciliation
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-toronto-school-builds-bridge-to-reconciliation#respondTue, 04 Jul 2017 08:48:45 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=764588Singing O Canada is a morning ritual familiar to every Canadian student. But at one Toronto school, they’ve added another tradition.

Recently, Craig and former Prime Minister Paul Martin visited Eastview Public School in Scarborough, Ont. They were ushered into the gym in time for assembly. The last note of the national anthem had barely finished when a student marched confidently up to the pair. From a pot in his hands came a sweet-smelling smoke, which he wafted over the visitors with a feather.

Students perform this traditional indigenous smudge ceremony every morning alongside the national anthem.

Eastview is, in small scale, a model and road map for national reconciliation. The school is taking cultural education beyond abstract facts to real understanding through experiential learning.

“Before I came to this school I had no idea about the First Nations. It has made me more open to learn about other people,” says Maria Sethi, a Grade 8 student who has attended Eastview for three years.

One third of Eastview’s 410 students identify as First Nations, Inuit or Métis, says principal Kenneth Morden, while the rest come from other diverse backgrounds. Craig and Martin were there as part of the We Stand Together campaign, designed to build bridges between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples through classroom education (supported by the Martin Family Initiative).

Eastview’s commitment to integrating indigenous culture is evident throughout the school. Morning announcements recognize that the campus resides on six First Nations’ and Métis territories. (The entire Toronto School Board has adopted this honoring practice, but Eastview is proud to have been among the first). Hallways and offices are decorated with indigenous art. In June, Eastview hosted a Pow Wow with more than 2,000 attendees.

“Before I came to this school I had no idea about the First Nations. It has made me more open to learn about other people,” says Maria Sethi, a Grade 8 student.

But integration goes much deeper than events and décor; it’s woven into the curriculum.

Both indigenous and non-indigenous students can choose to learn Ojibwe or French. All grades take classes in indigenous culture and history, including residential schools. Students making dreamcatchers in visual art will also learn its symbolism and traditions: the four medicines, and the seven sacred grandfather teachings.

Eastview’s efforts are having a positive impact on students, staff and families.

Fourteen-year-old Métis student Jahnya Michael tells us she finds her non-indigenous classmates more accepting than students she meets from other schools.

The spirit of inclusion at Eastview helps some indigenous students feel more positive about their relationship with Canada.

“I feel more connected. I identify as both Canadian and indigenous,” says Jahnya.

Seeing their children in a welcoming environment that reflects their culture is also slowly winning the trust of indigenous parents, who still fear an education system that once created residential schools, Morden says.

For teachers, the program has provided opportunities for growth and development. Morden admits he and the other non-indigenous staff still make occasional blunders around cultural sensitivity. One of the hardest but most important lessons, he says, has been accepting criticism gracefully and learning from mistakes.

As Canadians, one of the toughest roads ahead of us is the path to reconciliation. Pathfinders like the staff and students of Eastview can show us the way.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-toronto-school-builds-bridge-to-reconciliation/feed0Eastview Public SchoolcraigkielburgerGlobal Voices: What’s your gift to Canada?http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-whats-your-gift-to-canada
http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-whats-your-gift-to-canada#respondTue, 27 Jun 2017 06:58:21 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=764573As Canada Day approaches, there is a lingering question for many. What does 150 years of Canada mean and how do we properly mark it?

These distractions aside, our past is complicated. To ensure a better future, we have to take an honest look at what Canada has done right — serving as a beacon of freedom for former slaves and opening our doors to refugees. And wrong — cultural genocide inflicted by residential schools and the Second World War internment of Japanese Canadians.

Amid calls to celebrate our accomplishments and reflect on our shortfalls, we haven’t heard enough about how to move forward as a nation and take ownership over the next 150 years.

Perhaps we can do it with a birthday gift. We want all Canadians to give a gift of service for the future of our country. On July 1, Canadians will mark the milestone with a party. On July 2, we’re inviting everyone to harness that inspiration and launch a year of service to set the tone for the next 150.

Roméo Dallaire, humanitarian, author, and retired general and senator, will appear, along with other luminaries, on the WE Day Canada stage [Gavin Young/Calgary Herald]

The best gift we can give our communities, our country and future generations of Canadians is to come together as a nation to solve the biggest issues we’re facing. How do we advance reconciliation? Protect the environment? Create a healthy multicultural and diverse society? How do we share the best of Canada with the world?

We are honoured to be part of the July 2 celebration on Parliament Hill, an event open to all who are willing to help Canadians answer these questions.

Together, we’ll look to the future with some of the brightest minds in the country — but even more importantly, many of the most engaged young people. Leaders who take the stage at WE Day Canada will be paired with young people who share their passion.

Chris Hadfield will speak about his journey from small-town Ontario to the stars. He’ll share the stage with Mila Solaja, the Toronto teen who’s breaking down gender barriers in science, advocating for young girls in STEM.

The best gift we can give our communities, our country and future generations of Canadians is to come together as a nation to solve the biggest issues we’re facing.

National Chief Perry Bellegarde will share his life’s — work advocating for indigenous communities. He’ll be joined by Amelia Boissoneau, a teenager from Blaine Lake, Sask. She was told her indigenous skin wasn’t beautiful but now champions diversity on the runway as a model.

YouTube sensation Lilly Singh will talk about finding her voice and using it to inspire others. She’ll be joined by some of the most popular social media personalities from across Canada who are creating inclusive and supportive online communities.

Nelly Furtado. Roméo Dallaire. P.K. Subban. Margaret Trudeau. All will pledge a gift to the country at the event — free to everyone, and streamed live on Facebook.

Wherever you are on Canada Day, we hope you’ll reflect on what we want to accomplish over the next 150 years.

What’s your gift to Canada?

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

]]>http://o.canada.com/life/global-voices-whats-your-gift-to-canada/feed0Chris HadfieldcraigkielburgerRoméo DallaireUrban Vegetarian’s Desiree Nielsen busts 4 myths about plant-eatershttp://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/urban-vegetarians-desiree-nielsen-busts-4-myths-about-plant-eaters
http://o.canada.com/entertainment/television/urban-vegetarians-desiree-nielsen-busts-4-myths-about-plant-eaters#respondFri, 23 Jun 2017 19:32:02 +0000http://o.canada.com/?p=764124When it comes to being a vegetarian, sometimes it’s just not that easy being green. And it doesn’t help that saying you eat a plant-based diet can get you shunned quicker than pasta at a supermodel’s dress fitting.

Researchers at the University of Calgary and Brock University found that meat eaters judged plant eaters particularly harshly.

“Strikingly, only drug addicts were evaluated more negatively than vegetarians and vegans,” they wrote in the 2015 paper It Ain’t Easy Eating Greens.

Still, according to a Vancouver Humane Society poll that same year, 8 per cent of Canadians say they’re vegetarian or mostly vegetarian, and another 25 per cent claim they’re trying to eat less meat.

For Vancouver-based dietitian Desiree Nielsen, who hosts the cooking show The Urban Vegetarian (airing Fridays on Gusto), the path to vegetarianism wasn’t exactly as smooth as the cashew sauce she tenderly pours on her sweet potato noodles.

“I’d love to say that I had some amazing, noble vision for my vegetarianism, but in all honesty, I was a teenage girl and there was a boy that I liked who was vegetarian, and it was just to impress him,” she says.

“I thought that I was at the height of vegetarian health and sophistication, but in all honesty I started out like many people do. It was veggie dogs and macaroni and cheese, tons of potato chips and pots of raisins. I would go through these huge tubs of raisins all the time.”

“I thought that I was at the height of vegetarian health and sophistication, but in all honesty I started out like many people do.”

Soon after going vegetarian, Nielsen tried being vegan — but, without knowing what foods to eat and lacking the cooking skills, it was short-lived. Hunger is a strong persuader.

Now, she says, “Whereas my diet veers closer to a vegan diet, I’m not strict about anything. But I know how to put protein on my plate and give my body what it needs.”

Nielsen knows the benefits. She says people who eat more plant-centred diets maintain a healthy weight more easily, and they tend to have a lower risk of chronic disease over time.

“The other thing a lot of people don’t really think about is sustainability, that it’s more efficient in terms of land use, particularly water usage, to get your energy from plant foods. Animal agriculture is super water intensive.”

Nielsen, who’s also written the book Un-Junk Your Diet, debunked four myths about vegetarianism for Postmedia News:

Desiree Nielsen hosts the Gusto cooking show The Urban Vegetarian

1. You won’t get enough protein

“The literature shows that even the average vegetarian still gets way more protein that’s necessary for human health. Vegans typically meet the protein requirements that are needed as well … Vegetarians can absolutely get enough protein with legumes, nuts, tofu — it’s so easy. It just takes that little bit of awareness. Like, ‘Oh I’m making a pasta for myself, let’s do a white bean. Or let’s do a ground tofu in the sauce.’”

2. You need expensive or hard-to-find ingredients

“I think when we think healthy, we think of all the fancy stuff. We think of the $10 green juices or the goji berry granolas. But really at their heart, vegetarian staple foods are what people the world over eat as sustenance. Beans, grains and basic veggies are incredibly inexpensive, and that’s where the cooking comes in. How do you take beans and rice and a bit of broccoli and make it amazing? It’s knowing your spices and knowing how to cook them.”

“I think when we think healthy, we think of all the fancy stuff.”

3. You can eat unlimited cheese and chips

“I think that’s a big myth around vegetarianism — that it’s instantly healthier. If you’re a healthy vegetarian, then absolutely you can be a junk-food, cheesy-carb vegetarian, or you can be an Oreo- and candy-obsessed vegan. So for everyone, the focus has to be those whole plant foods. Even as a flexitarian, you can have a few vegetarian meals, but the more you’re putting those plant foods on your plate, the healthier you will be.”

4. Plant-eaters eat perfectly all the time

“I went through this when I first became a vegetarian. You get so excited about the choice that you made. You’re filled with so much information and you just want everyone in the world to know it … It’s one of the reasons that when people are interested in vegetarianism but don’t know if they can fully commit, I say, ‘Then don’t fully commit. Could you do your breakfasts and lunches vegetarian? Or could you do three vegetarian meals a week?’

“And then it’s just about playing with the food, having fun in the kitchen and seeing what happens. Do you feel better? Do you feel healthier? Is it less expensive? Then keep moving on the path. But if you keep having that steak twice a month, and that’s what keeps you mostly vegetarian, that’s awesome, too.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy star shared a video on social media, asking his followers to ignore the subtitles and turn up the volume.

He didn’t realize how insulting that was for the nearly 400 million people around the world who have hearing loss and rely on those subtitles — until some of them lambasted him on Twitter.

To his credit, Pratt immediately apologized (using sign language), and thanked his fans for the learning opportunity. Then, he challenged Instagram to make its app more inclusive with automatic captioning for all videos.

“I wish we could bottle that learning moment, and share it a million times,” says Rich Donovan, CEO of The Return on Disability. The consulting firm helps companies prioritize inclusion to attract customers and employees, advancing innovative tactics on an issue that’s usually seen narrowly as ramps and braille.

“It’s the bare minimum, the very least we can do to meet basic accommodations and legal mandates.”

While infrastructure is important (and frustratingly absent in some cases), barriers can be more than just physical, and we’re seeing a new wave of designers and innovators expand the very meaning of accessibility.

Deaf concert goers are enjoying music like never before as interpreters reinvent American Sign Language, using enhanced body movements to translate the sonic experience into visual art. People with visual impairments can touch museum artifacts and immerse themselves in verbal descriptions as they pose like a sculpture or draw priceless treasures.

“I wish we could bottle that learning moment, and share it a million times,” says Rich Donovan, CEO of The Return on Disability.

And by pairing sighted patrons with visually impaired partners, specialty travel agencies create unique experiences that alter perspectives for both groups as they walk among the terracotta warriors in China and through the Parthenon in Rome.

Accessibility is more than an afterthought. When it’s a part of the process from the beginning, it leads to enhanced experiences for everyone. It’s even a catalyst for innovation.

“[Google] used someone who is blind as their muse,” says Donovan. The result is a self-driving car. “If we design with accessibility in mind, we create better products.”

Voice control, smart phone screens that adapt to changes in light, autocomplete texts — these are all innovations inspired by questions of accessibility.

A first step is proving there’s a demand. Products and services geared toward people with disabilities make a strong business case for mainstream companies to follow suit. And if the market leads, innovative accessibility will follow.

“We’ve come a long way,” says Shelley Ann Morris, an Ottawa native who is visually impaired. Public buses that announce stops have made getting around the city much easier while descriptive audio tracks at movie theatres help her enjoy Chris Pratt’s latest work. “These may start as niche, but eventually they’ll just be the way things are.”

One in seven Canadians is living with a disability, and as the population ages, that number will go up.

If we learn from these communities and design with empathy for others’ abilities, we can expand the very idea of accessibility and build a more inclusive society.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

With newborn twin daughters, sleep was a rare occurrence for our friend Kevin.* But as mornings became harder, it wasn’t just new-parent fatigue. Kevin felt listless. He stopped attending meetings of the local historical recreation society, his favourite hobby. Some days he couldn’t find the motivation to get out of bed.

Kevin’s daughters are teenagers now. Over a decade later, he tells us he’s still not sure how he muddled through that difficult time. Kevin was likely experiencing the baby blues.

Postpartum depression has long been recognized as a risk for new mothers. The parenting books and videos rarely, if ever, warn dad — even though his risk is nearly as high.

Postpartum depression, a mental illness that can follow the birth of a child, affects about 10 per cent of new dads, and 10 to 15 per cent of new moms, according to Isabel Sadowski, a researcher with the University of British Columbia’s psychiatry department. Symptoms vary, with men more prone to anger or substance abuse, and can last up to two years.

Once baby arrives, all parents experience similar triggers for depression — increased stress and lifestyle changes. There is also emerging evidence that men undergo hormonal changes after the birth of their children that can impact their mood.

New dads are also vulnerable to a severe anxiety, panic attacks and obsessive behaviours. Often without support.

But the biggest factor for men is their partner’s mental health. If his partner experiences depression, the risk for dad more than doubles, according to Sadowski. New dads are also vulnerable to a severe anxiety, panic attacks and obsessive behaviours. Often without support.

Before and after pregnancies, mom and baby get most of the medical attention, and in cases where mom has delivered the baby, there’s good reason for that. But it also means dad is less likely to have contact with health care professionals who might spot the signs of mental health issues. Even doctors don’t always realize they should be checking on dad’s mental health, too, says Sadowski.

“Women don’t even get screened enough. For dads, it’s worse.”

Men are also less likely to seek help, Sadowski adds. “There are a lot of dads suffering from depression and not getting the treatment they need.”

Dr. Shaila Misri, a clinical professor of psychiatry, tells us her department at UBC runs therapy groups for fathers, but notes that programs like this are rare in Canada.

The best Father’s Day gift for new dads? Ask him how he’s doing. “Offer non-judgmental support. Let him know he’s in a safe space to share his feelings,” recommends Sadowski.

If he talks about sad moods, feelings of hopelessness, problems concentrating or finding motivation for daily life, urge him to get help.

Father’s Day is an opportunity to do more than sell neckties and greeting cards. It’s a chance to promote good mental health for all the dads in our lives.

*name has been changed to protect privacy

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement,which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories.

Twenty thousand children were abducted and one hundred thousand victims were slaughtered at the hands of his soldiers.

For decades, Joseph Kony was infamous in human rights circles. But he became a household name after the short film Kony 2012, called for an international effort to bring the Ugandan warlord to justice. Kony 2012 attracted over 100 million views within six days. When the film went viral, thousands of Americans lobbied Congress.

The U.S. military was already partnered to support the Ugandan army in defeating Kony’s militia. But the film brought broad public support for the mission. “This campaign was quite influential in the halls of power in Washington,” confirms Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a recent BBC interview.

Five years later, the U.S. and Ugandan militaries are calling off the hunt. Kony remains at large. As U.S. troops board planes home and Ugandan troops return to their bases, Kony 2012 becomes a footnote in social media history, with some calling it a lesson in the limitations of Internet activism.

But while Kony may be free, his militia is broken and disorganized. Today it is a fractured band of about 100, although they still deploy brutal tactics as they struggle to survive.

“Back in 2006, the LRA was the biggest threat in the region. We’ve seen a massive drop-off,” says Paul Ronan, senior policy adviser with Invisible Children, the group that produced Kony 2012.

Unfortunately, as our global attention span wanes, some of the most vulnerable are abandoned.

What remains are the meaningful programs that have shown real impact in the communities that still suffer wounds inflicted by Kony and his group.

Invisible Children has been extremely effective reducing the LRA’s numbers through its “come home” initiative, encouraging soldiers to defect, many of whom were abducted as children themselves. Radio programs feature recorded messages from soldiers’ families, pleading with their loved ones to return. Pamphlets with family photos are airdropped along LRA travel routes. Eighty nine per cent of defectors from the LRA attribute their escape to these messages.

Unfortunately, as our global attention span wanes, some of the most vulnerable are abandoned.

“Many of the big NGOs have gone. Funding and attention has dried up,” says Will Cragin, a public health expert with the World Health Organization who worked in Uganda and the Central African Republic, areas affected by the LRA.

Invisible Children is one of the few organizations still working with these communities. However, Ronan reports they also face increased difficulty securing funds to maintain programs like the radio broadcasts encouraging defection, as well as psychological support programs for LRA victims and survivors.